


For a good future

by GeoLiza_15



Series: Between two futures [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/F, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Kind of AU, Science Babies, time-travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-25 20:28:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 127,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6208966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeoLiza_15/pseuds/GeoLiza_15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of Vol.3:<br/>Ruby began a travel to Heaven together with team JN_R</p><p>Weiss return to Atlas</p><p>Blake ran away for everyone </p><p>Yang is in Patch, depressed </p><p>Or at least it was assumed that this had to happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Well, before we start I need to say that english isn't my first lenguage but I have an editor and he is fixed the chapters. The previous editor was EyesOfSteel who edited the prologue and Chapter 1, now the current editor is Mr Ilax, thanks to him the chapters won't have grammar errors, hope everyone could enjoy the story

Past, present and future. The meaning and the order of these words can be known as “The time-chain.”

The past is something that everyone has, something that we live and leave behind with the passage of time. The present is our “today”, our day to day. But at some point the present becomes past, and with the present becoming past it’s how we slowly turn to the future, in contrast to the past and the present. The future is something uncertain; nobody knows what can happen but that’s what makes the word “future” a source of possibilities.

But….

What happens when the order “Past, present, and future” is broken?

When the future travels to the past to fix the present? Can we expect a good result of this cause and effect? 

There are cases when the consequences of this question do not matter.  
.  
.  
.  
Little by little the sounds of the multiple battles around Beacon began to disappear - the war was coming to an end. Somewhere in the Tower of the Academy there were four girls hidden within the shadows. Only the red hood of one of them stood out among the darkness.

“Everyone knows what to do, right?” the red hooded girl asked.

“Don’t worry, we reviewed the plan as many times as possible,” one of her teammates answered. It was a girl with deep blue eyes.

“Come on! We're already close to this tower's highest point, we only need to await the signal,” the third member of the team said. She had playful purple eyes.

“Even though, I think it will better if we go ahead a little.” That was said of the last member of the team, a girl with red-eyes.

In response to what the girls had said, the four began to walk; they were constantly accelerating their steps, paying attention to any noise in the place and then they heard the sound of the roof breaking. That was the signal that they were waiting for.

“Okay, everyone it´s time,” the red hooded girl exclaimed. She and her red-eyed partner start to run away.

The the other two girls said “Roger!” And like their teammates they began to run, but in another direction. They ran as fast as they could, desperate to reach their destination. The red-eyed girl took a can of spray paint out of her backpack, “I hope this plan works” she accidentally said out loud.

“It has to!” the other girl exclaimed, her voice sounding firm and confident, a signal of trust. Just trust in the success of the plan. But at the same time she sound scared. “We need….no, we MUST change the future.”

“I know, so don´t worry!” the red-eyed girl said for both her partner and herself. “We WILL do it, no matter what.”

Sometimes to transform a dark future in a bright one, you need the past, the present and the future in the same place at the same time.


	2. R and S

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapter at once, I'll busy this week so I decide to post two chapters inside of one.

_“Where I am?”_ That was the first question that Ruby Rose asked herself when she opened her eyes. There was no doubt that she was in a room. She sat on the bed and began to look around trying to understand what was going on. For a moment she thought that she was alone, but that thought disappeared for her mind when she heard a voice.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.”

It wasn't necessary to search for the owner of that voice, she quickly hugged her dad and he didn´t wait to return the hug. Ruby was still confused, but now she felt a little more calm; her uncle was there too but he didn´t say anything.

“Dad, uncle Qrow, what happened? Where we are?”

“You don’t remember anything?” Taiyang asked.

“I…”

She remembered that Beacon had become a war field, she had gathered with Weiss and after that…..after that…..she and Weiss met up with…..Yang!!! Ruby remembered when she saw her sister without an arm, her face was filled with terror as she looked from her father to her uncle.

“Dad! Yang’s….”

“She is fine,” Qrow answered. “She’ll recover physically, but I can’t say the same about her emotional state.”

“We went to see her in the morning but she….” his voice sounded sad, very sad. “She looked so depressed, I know that she is strong but.…it will be difficult.”

Depressed? Yang? Of course she would be depressed, losing an arm had to be a very traumatic experience, and the phantom pains weren't going to help her to forget that. The room plunged into silence, the atmosphere heavy and no one wanting to talk. Ruby was trying to remember more but then her memories arrived at the moment in which she….

“Pyrrha!” she exclaimed and immediately she grabbed her father’s shoulders. “How long have I have been unconscious? What happened to Pyrrha? How did the battle of Beacon end? Where we are!?”

“Ruby, relax.”

Taiyang took his daughter by the shoulders and then he and Qrow told her what happened. First, her friend, Pyrrha Nikos, and she were found by Weiss, both girls unconscious on the first floor of the Beacon tower. Right now Beacon was overrun with Grimm thanks to the dragon  frozen in the highest point of the school tower. Ozpin had disappeared. They were in some kind of hospital in a safe place of Vale where every person who was hurt in the battle was resting. Finally, Ruby was unconscious only for one night, so in other words that day was “the day after the battle”.

“Thank God, Pyrrha is fine,” Ruby said feeling more relaxed. “But how did that dragon end up frozen?”

“That is what we want to know,” Qrow said. When he saw his niece, her silver eyes to be more specific, he knew the hidden power of those silver eyes. But the fact that Ruby was found in a place far from the frozen Grimm didn’t make sense. “Okay kiddo, what’s the last thing that you remember?”

“The last thing….”

Ruby remembered that she was on the way to Pyrrha’s battle against Cinder, but she didn’t make it and then….then something very important came to her memories - she had reached the highest point of the tower but then she was stopped by a pair of girls, one with blue eyes and the other one with purple eyes. One of them said to her, _“Sorry but you can’t pass this point.”_ After that the blue-eyed girl sprayed her with something that made her feel disoriented and tired, and then the purple-eyes girl told her, _“We really sorry but this is necessary.”_

“And I fainted after that.”

After hearing that, Qrow was a little more relieved - Ruby wasn’t the one who freeze the Grimm. But that feeling quickly disappeared. If Ruby didn’t freeze the dragon, then who did it? Who were the girls who left her unconscious? What was happening? He really had a lot of questions in his head right then.

“I´m going to see Yang.”

Ruby got out of the bed. She decided to leave the room, but before she could make it her father took one of her shoulders, and said to her that at the moment Yang was very sensitive, in the emotional way, and to not be surprised if the blonde asked to be alone. After that Ruby left the room. The first thing that she saw was two members of the team JNPR. She felt a little disappointed since she expected to see Weiss and Blake, but the more probable thing was that they were outside of Yang’s room.

“Ruby!” Ren said. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, my dad and uncle said that I was only unconscious, I don’t have any wounds and….How is Pyrrha? And where is Jaune?”

“She’s fine,” the black-haired guy said. “She has a wound in her foot, nothing serious, and she still unconscious but she’ll fine. Jaune is with her, he doesn't want to leave her until she wakes up.”

“Ruby!” Nora exclaimed as she hugged the girl. “We really wanted to see you! But your dad saw Ren with bad eyes and your uncle smelled like alcohol and I didn’t like that, so we decided to stay here, I’m very glad that you are fine!”

“T-thanks Nora” Ruby said as best as she could, she made for Nora finish her hug since as more time passed she felt the missing of air. “I’m going to see Yang. Do you guys know if Weiss and Blake are outside of Yang's room?”

And then when Nora and Ren looked at each other after that question, Ruby thought that was a very strange gesture so she asked what was happening.

“You didn´t know?” Ren said. “Weiss’s father came for her this morning. He said that they will return to Atlas and Blake has been missing since yesterday.”

“What!?” she exclaimed.

“Listen,” Ren continued. “Right now Vale is a mess and Weiss’s father thinks that she will be better in Atlas. And Blake….”

“What happened to her? Tell me!”

“We don’t know,” Nora said. “Blake….she just….She just disappeared!!! We were with her in the evacuation ship, we leave her alone for a moment and then she just….Poof!!!”

 _“Why they didn´t prevent Weiss's dad from taking her away? Why didn't they go after Blake?”_ Ruby really wanted to say those questions aloud but she didn’t - she was the leader, so the responsibility of caring for her teammates was her's and not someone else's. She decided to say goodbye to her friends and went to the room where her sister was.

When she arrived at Yang's room..…her body couldn't move. Ruby wanted to go into that room but she couldn’t. What would she do to encourage her? How should she react to seeing Yang without an arm? Does she know what happened to Weiss and Blake? Should she tell Yang about it? There were so many questions in her head but even through it, she gathered all her courage and she touched the door.

“Yang, It’s me, Ruby.”

She didn’t receive any response but she decided to enter the room. Ruby could feel her eyes fill with tears when she looked at her sister, she looked so discouraged, so weak, so helpless. There were no traces of the Yang who was always full of energy and happy. The person who was in front of her was totally opposite to the elder sister that she knew.

“Hey.” Yang said, her voice lacking the energy that she always used to have. “How are you?”

“I´m fine, I don’t have any wounds. But I’m the one who needs to ask that.”

“I’ll live.”

“And I’m happy for that.” She didn’t know what to say now. “Hey….I know that this isn’t the best moment to say it but I saw Ren and Nora and they told me that…”

“Weiss's dad took her back to Atlas and Blake is….missing.” She sounded sad saying that part.

“I didn’t know that they came to see you.” Seriously, either Nora or Ren could have told her that Yang already knew about it.

“They didn’t come, Weiss told me that before she went.”

“I see…..Well that leaves us with half of team RWBY, but don’t worry I'll see what I can do to bring Weiss back! After that we can start to look for Blake and then -”

“Ruby, could you leave me alone? I’m not okay.”

 _“ - we will be together again.”_ It was what she was going to say, but after what Taiyang said to her….she was awaiting that request, “Okay,” Ruby said and before she left the room. She hugged Yang, that was her way to say “I’m here for you”.

“I love you.”

After these words Ruby felt how her big sister was returning the hug. Yang’s hug felt weak but the force was increasing little by little.

“I love you, too.”

And then Ruby left the room. For a moment she didn’t want to leave Yang alone, but if that was what she wanted then she must respect her decision. When she closed the door behind her she slowly dropped to the floor until she was sitting.

What kind of sister was she? What kind of friend was she? And the most important question, What kind of leader was she? She wasn’t able to give Yang emotional support, she wasn’t able to prevent Blake's disappearance, and when Weiss's dad came for her….she wasn’t there to stop it. If she hadn’t been unconscious, she would have been able to stop Blake 's disappearance, and she could have unleashed a great argument and not allowed the return of Weiss to Atlas. Then the three of them, in this moment, would be giving Yang the support that she needed. But that was not possible - she wasn’t able to keep her team together, she had failed her sister, her partner, her friend, everyone.

“Maybe….I’m a bad leader after all,” Ruby said to herself.

“I think you are a good leader.”

She almost cried of fright, but her mouth was covered before that could happen. The person responsible was a girl that she never seen before, furthermore, how had she not noticed her? But right now Ruby had a more important thought in her head….the mysterious girl looked exactly like her, in the face, in the height, and they had the same red hood. But the girl's hair was a dull red and longer than her own hair, and most importantly…

 _“She has silver eyes,”_ Ruby thought. _“Like me.”_

“Ruby Rose,” the girl said. “Right now you have two options, you can come with me without resistance, or I force you to.”

The word "confused" was not enough to describe how Ruby felt in those moments. First off,  how did that girl know her name? And second, no matter which of the two options she chose, she would have to go to some unknown place. The red-hooded girl removed her hand for Ruby’s mouth under the condition of don’t scream.

“Who are you?” Ruby asked.

“Listen, that is something that I can't say right now, but I can tell you this, you can call me Su and I’m the leader of team SSMR”

“Team SSMR?” Ruby said it slowly. She didn’t remember any team with that name in the tournament. “Wait.…Where are you taking me and why do you want to take me with you?”

“I want to take you back to Beacon. Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and my teammates are waiting for us.”

Bring her back to Beacon? That place was a nest of Grimm at the moment! That wasn’t even the important thing though; that girl, Su, said that Weiss and Blake were in Beacon but how could that be possible? And then Ruby start to really look at the mysterious girl's eyes, silver eyes meeting silver eyes, and for some reason Ruby felt that she could trust that girl.

“But Beacon is a nest of Grimm right now.”

“Well…” Su started to say, “Beacon only lost the amphitheater, the dining hall, half of the library….in retrospect only the dorms and the Beacon tower are fine but the school isn’t a total nest. The Grimm are coming little by little. The school will be a nest in winter, but right now it’s fine. Now which of the two options are you going to take?”

“I will go with you.” Ruby said firmly. “But we’ll need a ship to reach Beacon.”

“Let's just say that one of the White fang ships was “damaged” during the fight and they left it at the school.”

“I don't like how you said the word _damaged._ ”

Leaving the “hospital” wasn’t difficult, they just went to one of the few empty rooms and the window was their exit ticket. After that Ruby and Su went to the city. It was a long trip and when they reached the city.…..It was sad. Almost all of the buildings were destroyed and the place was completely deserted. The consequences of the Battle of Beacon were horrible and then Ruby began to think about all that had been lost in the battle: the school, the peace…..Penny.

Then the two girls were in front of a White fang ship. Su touched the metal door.

“Silver, it’s me, open the door!”

The door opened and a girl with blue eyes quickly came out of the ship. Ruby was in shock that blue-eyed girl look like the girl who left her unconscious, but she couldn't say anything because the blue-eyed girl - whose name was Silver according to Su - was hugging Su. Or better said, Silver was hugging her big sister.

“Sister!” Silver said. “I’m glad to see you again!”

“Come on, we were separated for only one day!”

After that the three girls boarded the ship. Ruby had many questions, about Su, about Silver, about what was happening. She began to wonder if she had made the right decision, but the answers could wait. Right now Ruby only cared about arriving at Beacon, seeing Weiss and Blake, and giving Weiss a very big and strong hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s all, the next three chapter will be about how team SSMR is gathering team RWBY and I don't know when I'll able to publish the next one so please be patient and I hope everyone has enjoyed the chapter, see you next time.


	3. W and S

Guilty. That was how Weiss Schnee felt. She felt guilty that Ruby was unconscious in those moments.

“ _If I_ _had accompanied her then_ _…_ ”

But that did not apply only to her partner. If she had guarded Blake better she wouldn't have been able to run off and if she had accompanied Yang to look for Blake then… then Yang would still have her right arm.

Now, as the only member of the team RWBY who wasn’t hurt, the only thing she could do was stay in Ruby’s room and wait for her to wake up. But, if she was honest with herself, she hoped that it would take time for Ruby to wake up. She needed that time to think about how to give the news that Blake had disappeared in the midst of evacuation.

“I’m sorry.” Weiss said as she watched Ruby. “Its my fault you’re unconscious”

She felt her Scroll was vibrate, it was her father. At that moment she decided to not answer as her father was the last person that she wanted to talk to. Then she began to remember what had happened a few hours ago. The destruction of the school, the invasion of Grimm, the moment when she found Ruby and Pyrrha unconscious. Although there was something  she fuzzily remembered seeing. Something about a huge silver glow on the top of the Beacon Tower. That glow had dazzled her for a few seconds and, when she was able to open her eyes again, she saw Ruby and Pyrrha sprawled on the floor a few meters from her. There were many things she remembered, but she could not get one thing out of her mind.

The moment when she use her semblance.

Winter had told her that emotions could be a key factor in summoning, but Weiss couldn’t remember how she was feeling when she use her semblance. Was she angry for not being able to do anything? Was she scared when she saw that Velvet was about to be attacked? Frustrated? Desperate? Determined? Weiss simply couldn't remember the feeling. She was so lost in her thoughts that she do not hear when the door was opened.

“Great, the Ice queen's lil’ sis is here”

Unfortunately, she knew the owner of that voice, it was Yang and Ruby’s uncle Qrow Branwen. He was accompanied by a blond man she had never seen before, but she soon realized that he was the father of her two teammates.

“Be nice, Qrow.” The blond man said. “She is Yang and Ruby friend.”

“Don’t worry, sir.” Weiss said. “You must be Yang and Ruby's father.”

“That’s right. My name is Taiyang Xiao Long.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Xiao Long. I’m Weiss Schnee and, if you'll excuse me, I’ll retire now.”

“You don’t want to stay?” Tai asked.

Weiss wanted to say "Yes" but, feeling that in this moment Ruby needed to be with her family, her answer was “No.” With that answer Weiss left the room but now she did not know what to do. She thought of going to see Yang but she didn't know if she could bear to see her without an arm. She then thought about going to see Pyrrha but she’ll probably still unconscious. Finally she thought to look for Blake but did not know where to start. She felt so useless.

“Weiss!” She heard someone call. It was Nora's voice and wherever she was, there was always a certain someone next to her.

“Nora, Ren, I thought you two were with Pyrrha… Where is Jaune?”

“He doesn’t want to leave Pyrrha.” Ren said.

“I’m pretty sure that something happen between those two!” Nora said “And when Pyrrha wakes up, I SWEAR THAT I WILL DISCOVER WHAT HAPPENED!!!”

Weiss just smiled, Nora's comments somehow made her feel better. Her Scroll began to vibrate again, it was her father. As she had done previously she decided not to answer. She turned to see Ren and Nora. She wanted to talk with them and clear some of her doubts but, when she saw her friend, they looked very serious and almost frightened. Which, in Nora's case, was very rare.

“What happened?” she asked.

“So you were ignoring my calls.”

Weiss froze. The hairs on her back stood up. Almost paralyzed, she turned to see the person who was behind her. There was no doubt that it was her father. His white hair and beard were unmistakable and his serious gaze made her feel helpless. What was he doing here?

“F-father! Why are you here?”

“Your question offends me, Weiss.” He said. “Vale has become a dangerous place, I believe you know very well what I mean.”

Weiss's body froze. A part of her knew what her father meant with those words, but the other part didn't want to accept it. Her hands began to shake and her mouth became unable to emit any sound as soon as his father said, _“We return to Atlas, right now.”_ Even Nora stayed silent after hearing that.

“B-but I need to consult that with my team leader!”

“I'll make sure that your leader receives a notification”

“B-but…”

“Without buts. The ship is waiting outside. Say goodbye to your friends and let's go”

Weiss squeezed her fists. When her father made a decision nothing would change his mind. The only exception was when she had told him that she wanted to go to study at Beacon. At first he was opposed to the idea but, she didn't know how, he ended up accepting it; but that would never happen again. Without any options she did what her father said. But she didn’t say goodbye to Ren and Nora, nor did she enter to Ruby room to say goodbye. Instead, she went to Yang’s room, though, she didn’t enter to the room, she only touched the door.

“Yang, it’s me, Weiss.” She said as she placed her forehead on the door. “Listen… I have to return to Atlas. I don´t want to, but I don't have an option. Ruby is fine, so don’t worry about her and… I’m sorry to tell you this, but Blake is missing. Forgive me for coming to say goodbye in this way, but I’m sure that we’ll meet again. The same goes for Ruby and Blake… wherever she is. I want you to remember this very well, this is not a goodbye, so cheer up.”

That was all. Without telling anyone else, she left. She really wanted to say goodbye to Ruby but she didn't want to bother her family. When she left the building the first thing she saw was the ship that would take her back to Atlas. Before boarding the ship Weiss looked back at the building. She didn't want to leave, she wanted to stay. She wanted to stay with her friends, to stay with her team… to stay with Ruby.

“Weiss, hurry up.” Her father said. “Remember, the trip to Atlas is long.”

“I’m sorry, father.”

She began boarding the ship with slow step. Her mind told her “stay” but her body was doing the opposite. When Weiss heard the door behind her close, she knew that there would be no turning back. She decided to sit next to the window. Weiss didn’t know when she could return back to Vale so she really want to appreciate that kingdom. Her father sat in the seat next to her and, as Weiss had expected, he did not speak again.

The engines ignited and the ship began to rise from the ground. When Weiss began to see how they moved slowly away from the ground she sighed. She really wanted to stay in Vale but, knowing her father, no matter what she said or did, the answer to that request would be “No.” But in a matter of seconds, she learned that you can get what you want when you least expect it.

Someone began to speak through the ship’s speakers.

“I am happy to report that our takeoff was successful and now I’ll proceed with the activation of the autopilot. Thank you for trusting in me, the temporary pilot. And now….”

The cockpit doors opened and a blue-eyed girl came out. The two Schnees were confused. Who was she, and when did she board the ship? Weiss’s father was willing to get answers but, before he could say anything, the girl sprayed something which caused him lose consciousness in seconds.

“And now I'd like it if you, Mr Schnee, stay asleep for a while.” The blue-eyed girl said with a smile.

Who are you? What did you do to my father? How do you get in here? These were only a few of the questions that Weiss wanted to ask and she was ready to get answers, by force. But, before she could take her weapon out, she saw the girl sit on the floor and raise her hands in surrender, or she was showing her that she had no intention of attacking her, either one was valid.

“Relax.” The girl said. “I will not hurt you. I just want to talk.”

Weiss didn’t know why, but she believed in the girl's words. She also sat on the floor to talk face to face… it was disturbing. It was like looking in a mirror. Same eyes, same face; the girl was physically identical to Weiss. The only difference was the hair color. While Weiss's hair was white and long, the girl’s was reddish-white and short.

 _“She really looks like me, but her attitude_ _resembles Ruby’s.”_ Weiss thought. It was pretty strange to see a copy of herself with one of her friends attitude, but that wasn’t the moment to think about it. “Okay, Who are you?”

“My name is Silver, I'm a member of team SSMR”

Team SSMR? That was the first time that she heard that name, but decided to not think too much about it. The next question was about the auto-pilot and Silver answered that she had programmed it to fly around Vale. The third question was about how Silver had boarded the ship, and the answer was that she had entered shortly after Weiss's father exited and luckily there were no bodyguards. The fourth question was about what had happened to the pilot. Silver said that she had left him unconscious but unharmed. Finally, the fifth question…

“Where do you want to take me?”

“To Beacon. Blake Belladonna and my partner are there.”

After hearing that Weiss didn't know how to feel, angry or relieved. Angry because the girl in front of her was probably responsible for the disappearance, or kidnapping, of Blake and relieved because now she knew that her teammate was safe. Then a new questions came to Weiss's mind. Why did Silver want to take her to Beacon? Why was Blake there? Right now that place was a nest of Grimm.

“Why Beacon?”

“Our mission is: Don't let team RWBY get separated, and Beacon is the last place where someone would think to look.”

“Who gave your team that mission?”

“Classified.”

“Why can't team RWBY be separated?”

“Classified.”

“Can you tell me something that isn’t classified?” At this point Weiss thought it would be better to ask that instead of asking another question whose answer was "classified".

“Well, I need to take you back to Beacon. My partner Mia will monitor you a manner so you will not be able to escape. after that I need to pick up my sister and Ruby and then…”

 _You will not be able to escape_ ; that practically meant that she was being kidnapped. But her mind was thinking about the second sentence, "pick up my sister and Ruby.” Well, if the mission Silver and her teammates was to gather team RWBY, it was obvious that Ruby would also be "kidnapped" and that thought make her feel happy, but… Weiss turned to look at her unconscious father. How will he react when he wakes up and doesn’t see her? Even if she wished to stay in Vale with her team, Weiss didn’t know if she would make the correct decision.

“Listen.” Silver said. “If you don’t want to come with me then I can’t force you.”

 _What!?_ Weiss thought. Why Silver was saying that?

“Your father forced you to return home and I don't want to do the same. If you want to come with me, or if you want to stay here and return to Atlas, I’ll accept either. But think about this, where do you feel more comfortable? With your family or with your team?”

Weiss began to think about that question. If she returned to Atlas... she would be alone. Winter would not be home for a while, her father would all but ignore her, and she didn’t have anyone to call “friend” in Atlas. But, with Ruby, Blake, and Yang, her thoughts were different. She never felt alone with them and then… she made her decision.

“I’ll go with you”

“Really?!” Silver exclaimed with great joy. Weiss felt strange, for a moment she believed that she was watching Ruby. “Okay, then  I will go, turn off the autopilot, and fly this ship to Beacon. After that I’ll program the autopilot so this thing will go directly to Atlas. It is improbable that the Grimm will see us, so please don’t use your weapon.”

Arrive at a place infested Grimm and not use a weapon was not the right decision but, if Weiss wanted to see her friends, she would have to obey Silver no matter what. Who was Silver? Who was team SSMR? Why is it that team RWBY can’t be separated? If Weiss wanted answers to these questions she would have to wait. Wait for her team to be together, wait to be with Blake, Yang, and the more important person of all… Ruby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It had been a while since the last time that I post a new chapter but somethings happen and my old editor leave the job for personal issues so I searched a new one (Fanfic name: Mr Ilax) also he want to present himself with this note:
> 
> Sup? Just a note from me, Mr. Ilax. Geo was nice enough to let me edit their story from here on out. I won't be doing any huge revisions, as I want Geo to tell the story they want to. I will just be doing my best to catch those pesky tense, conjugation, and grammar issues and, every now and then, I will do a little localization. I am not perfect, but we are aiming for a better reading experience. Everyone should get to tell the story they want, and this one looks great!  
> -Mr. Ilax
> 
> The two will work hard for continue and complete the story, thanks for the attention, I hope everyone had enjoy the chapter and see you next time.


	4. B and M

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early-short chapter! Well Blake is already in Beacon so like I said this chapter is a little short.

The last thing Blake Belladonna remembered was her holding on to Yang’s left hand. She felt horrible and couldn't stop repeating over and over again "I'm sorry." It was her fault that Yang lost her right arm. The wound in her stomach ached, and blood loss had left her weak, but still she refused to be unconscious. More so she had refused to release Yang’s hand, but the exhaustion ended up winning.

Blake was unconscious but she still could hear the voices around her. The voices of Sun, Nora, and Ren. As well as Weiss’s voice saying that she had found Ruby and Pyrrha unconscious and then… she didn’t know what happened.

She had a little headache, and a great discomfort in her stomach, but she slowly began to open her eyes. Blake took a few seconds to recognize where she was and she didn’t know how to react. She was in a room, her room, her team’s room. She was at Beacon? But How? She tried to sit up in the bed but the wound in her stomach began to throb.

“Your wound may hurt when you move, so be careful.”

Blake turned to see the owner of that voice and she saw a girl sitting on the floor. She had short black hair but what caught Blake’s attention were the girl eyes; they were purple like Yang’s. Actually, she felt that she was watching a black-haired clone of Yang. Same face, same messy hair… same eyes and she began to feel guilty again.

The moment when Adam cut off Yang’s arm was engraved in her mind like fire. Adam had done it because the blonde was someone important to her, because she was her friend. Blake turned to look at the mysterious girl and she notice how the girl was building, or finishing to build, something. Who was she? What she was she making? And the more important question, why they were in Beacon?

“Who are you?” Blake said, and the girl began to laugh.

“I was waiting that question.” She said. “My name is Mia. I’m a member of team SSMR. Nice to meet’ya.”

SSMR… She had never heard of a team with that name and did not remember seeing that name in the Vytal tournament. Blake's attention turned to the ground so she could better see what Mia was building; fingers, a wrist, a palm, a forearm, an elbow. It was an arm, a right arm for be more specific. Why was she building something like that?

“Mia.” Blake said. “I need to ask you some questions and I hope you can answer all of them.”

“Well… I can’t give details, but I'll see what I can do.”

“Okay, first question. I know we're in Beacon and this place was being evacuated. So, how did I get here?”

“When the wounded were being evacuated one of my teammates helped me get on the ship and we took you out of there before the gates closed. It was easy because your friends left you alone for a moment and, believe me when I say this, my partner is very fast.”

Those words could only mean one thing, she had been kidnapped but… it was strange. She didn’t get angry or worried. She felt comfortable with Mia and felt that she could trust her because, somehow, she knew that Mia was being sincere. It was a very strange feeling.

“Now.” Mia said. “I want to ask you something, can I?”

“Sure.”

“You have very cute cat ears. Why do you hide them?”

That question made Blake to move her hand to her head. Her bow was still there and a new question came to her mind; how Mia know about her ears?

“Personal motives.” She answered.

“I see.” Mia stopped working on the arm and turned to look at Blake. “To be honest, I would like to have cat ears. They look very cool.”

Was it a joke? Mia just said that she wanted to be a Faunus but Blake pushed that comment aside and asked more questions. Why they were in Beacon? And why was Mia building an arm? The second question made Mia go "AH!" and immediately she returned to her job.

“I need to finish this before my sister arrives or… she will get angry with me.”

“Why?”

“Because.” Mia began to smile and her purple eyes were sparkling with emotion. She pointed at the robo-arm on the floor. “This IS Yang Xiao Long’s new arm and my sister is bringing her here. The rest of my team is bringing Ruby and Weiss here, by the way.”

After hearing that Blake could have asked many things, but she didn’t. Instead she decided to lie down and go to sleep, or at least try. Mia didn’t say anything. Blake did not know how much time passed; perhaps seconds, minutes, or maybe even hours. All she could hear was Mia working on the arm… Yang’s new arm. Mia’s teammates were gathering team RWBY and she should feel happy. She was going to meet with her friends but the truth was that she was scared.

She was scared for the moment when Yang would enter to the room. How Yang will react when she saw her? Would she blame her for what happened? Would Yang hate her? Blake was afraid to discover the answers and she thought about running away.

Run away from Beacon and away from Mia. Flee as far as she could. She knew that, if she stayed with team RWBY, all of them would be in danger. Adam had told her that he will destroy everything that was important to her and everything she loves. Yang was the first in suffer for it. and she didn’t want that the same thing happen to Ruby or Weiss. She also didn’t want Yang to suffer again but, with Mia watching her, the chances of escape were very low. Closing her eyes she pretended to be asleep, then the sound of construction stopped.

“Listen.” Mia began to say. “You’re scared. I know it and I really _know_ how do you feel right now.”

Know how she felt? That had to be a very bad joke. Mia didn’t know anything, about her, about how she felt, or how she was blaming herself for that moment. Blake felt furious. She sat up on the bed and turned to look at Mia with anger.

“What do you know about how I feel?!” Blake cried. “Yang, my partner, _my friend,_ lost an arm and everything is **_my_** fault! I’m sure that she hate me right now! She tried to help me and that destroyed her life! You know how that felt!? Destroying the life of someone who is important to you and knowing that she will hate you for that!”

“Of course I know!!!”

Mia hit the floor with her fists. Her body was shaking. She took a deep breath and continued talking.

“When I was 10 years old, my sister…” She gulped saliva. Her body was still shaking and a few tears formed in her eyes. “S-she almost died. She end up in coma for a whole week and I thought it was my fault. When she woke up I was scared. I thought that she would hate me for what happened but, instead of that, the first thing that she did was hug me. She told to me, “ _Don't blame yourself, it isn’t your fault._ ”

After hearing that, Blake felt horrible with herself. She wanted to apologize to the girl but, before she could say something, Mia grabbed her hands.

“Listen, Blake. Right now you’re like me. I want you to think about this. You know Yang and do you really think that she is the kind of person who would hate a friend?”

That question make Blake remember the moment when Yang talked about her mother. She never said that she hated her. Of course she said that she was mad at her and that she wanted answers to why she left her. But the sentence “I hate her” never was mentioned. That memory was Blake’s answer.

“She isn’t that kind of a person.”

Mia smiled. It was not a mocking smile, or an overactive one, it was a sweet and relaxed smile and without a word Mia released Blake’s hand and she returned to her work. Blake didn’t say anything either. She began to look at her left hand, the hand that had held onto Yang. Right now the faunus had a lot of questions. Why was Mia’s team gathering team RWBY? Why were they at Beacon? What exactly was happening? But she decided to wait for answers because, right now, she only cared about seeing Yang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone had enjoy it and see you next time


	5. Y and R

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally reach what I want!!

The first thing Yang Xiao Long did when she opened her eyes was look at the right side of her body.

She didn't scream or cry; she did nothing. The wound still hurt but she didn't complain. All she could do was remember the moment when she heard the cries of her partner. Her body was filled with anger when she saw that someone had stabbed Blake and after that…

She clenched her teeth and covered her eyes with the only arm that she had.

She didn't want anyone to see her like this. Not even Ruby, Weiss or Blake. In that moment she felt so useless and weak. Like she wouldn't be able to fight anymore and wouldn't be able to become a huntress. She would be unable to do most things. She sighed and stared at the ceiling of the room. She didn't know what time it was nor did she know where she was. Then she looked at her left hand.

For some reason she felt that someone had held her hand while saying "I'm sorry," but she was unable to remember who had been that person. She wanted to know who that person was and she heard the bedroom door open; it was her uncle.

"You look worse than I imagined." Qrow said. "How do you feel?"

She didn't answer. She had lost an arm and it was her fault that team RWBY was dismissed from the Vytal tournament. She had been blamed for hurting someone helpless and surely all Vale saw her as a bad person for that. Physically she was fine, but emotionally…

"I get it, the question offended you."

"How are the others?"

"Ruby is unconscious. She didn't have any wounds so don't worry about her. The Schnee girl is the only one who didn't get hurt and your partner is… missing."

"What!?" Yang exclaimed.

How was that possible? She wanted the answer and was ready to demand it but, before she could say something, her uncle took her by the shoulders.

"Calm down!" Qrow said as he released his niece. "You will open your wound if you don´t relax. For your partner, as I heard, when Beacon was being evacuated she simply vanished into thin air, or something like that."

Missing? Vanished into thin air... no. Yang knew Blake and, therefore, could claim that she had not disappeared. She had fled, but… Why?

"Uncle. Can you leave me alone? I need to think."

Qrow just sighed and answered. "As you wish." But when he decided to leave the room, the door opened forcefully. It was Taiyang. He was saying Yang's name and his face reflected pain. He tried to approach his daughter but Qrow took him by the shoulders to prevent his progress.

"What are you doing?" Tai said with noticeable anger.

"Listen, this doesn't sound reasonable, but she wants to be alone."

"What!?" He exclaimed as he looked at his daughter.

"Dad. I really need to be alone… I have a lot to think about"

"Well." Qrow said. "We will in Ruby's room if you need us."

The next thing that Yang heard was the sound of the door closing. She just sighed and looked at her left hand again. Now she was sure that the words "I'm sorry," were the last thing that Blake said to her before fleeing. Yang turned to see the place where her right arm used to be and… she didn't know what to do. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. She wanted to scream, but couldn't. Everything was strange for her. She still felt her arm but she knew her right arm was not there anymore. Yang did not know how long she was lost in her thoughts but, suddenly, she heard as someone touched the door. It was Weiss.

The girl didn't enter into the room. She just told her what she already knew. Ruby was unconscious and Blake was missing. What Yang had not expected was that Weiss was going to return to Atlas. But, considering the current state of Vale, that was, in some ways, understandable. "Cheer up!" were the last words that Weiss said to her.

A few hours later Ruby came to see her. She felt relieved to see that her younger sister was safe but the conversation they had was too short. Before leaving Ruby hugged her with all her strength and "I love you" was the last thing that she said to her.

Now she was alone. Yang couldn't stop to looking her hand. She had been unconscious but was still able to remember the way that Blake had held it. Why did you run away? Yang thought. If Blake had run away because she had felt guilty for what happened, then she wanted to tell her, "It isn't you fault."

"Would you feel better if I say that Blake didn't run away?"

Yang quickly swung around to look at the person who had said that. It was a girl and Yang didn't know how to react. the girl seemed, or rather, was identical to Blake. The same face, same physique, and she was even a cat faunus. But the girl hair was blonde and short, not black and long like Blake's. Her right arm also was completely covered with bandages. But, what caught Yang attention, and surprise, were the girl's eyes. They were red.

The same red color that her own eyes change to when she was mad. Yang felt that she had seen those eyes before but she didn't know where. Something in the girl eyes felt familiar to her and then the girl faced Yang, purple-eyes meeting red-eyes.

"Who are…"

"Before you ask that question." The girl interrupted. "I will tell you my name but not right now. For the moment you can call me R, or Ra, whichever you want. I'm a member of team SSMR."

Team SSMR? Yang thought. She was confused, as she didn't remember seeing a team with that name in the Vytal tournament and if she had seen someone with red eyes and blonde hair at the festival she would have remembered it.

"What do you want?"

"Look, I know you're going through a bad time so I want to take you to a certain place where you will be able to talk to someone."

"Where and who?"

"To Patch." Ra said with a smile. "I want you to talk with your mother, Summer Rose."

Silence.

Return to Patch and talk with Summer. To be honest she liked the idea but, what concerned her, was the fact that Ra knew about Patch and Summer. Yang wanted to ask, "How do you know that?" but, before she could open her mouth, she saw Ra extend her hand.

"I will not force you to do anything. If you want to come then take my hand"

Yang said nothing. She was going to take Ra's hand with her right arm but quickly stopped and had to tell herself "You no longer have that arm" So she used her left hand. For some reason Ra's right hand felt weird. The bandages didn't affect her sense of touch and the right hand of the girl felt stiff and, in some ways, cold.

"I don't know how you know about Summer, but I feel that I can trust you. So I'll go with you."

The only thing that Ra did after hearing that was smile. She set out to help Yang get out of bed but the door opened. It was Taiyang and Qrow. Apparently they were looking for Ruby, but the question "Who are you?" never came. There was only one thought in Ra's mind.

Fuck.

.

.

.

Yang and Ra got into a rowboat. Using a normal passenger ship for the trip to Patch lasted, at most, half an hour, so it would take the two blondes a bit more than that to reach the island. Yang was keeping her distance from Ra. The confidence that she had in that girl was lost the moment when she left Taiyang and Qrow unconscious. Well, she hadn't lost all of her confidence in Ra, but she had lost a considerable part of it.

"Don't look at me like that." Ra said. "Your father and uncle are fine. They will wake up in a few hours or so."

"If you say so." Yang said without sounding very convinced.

They kept silent for the rest of the trip. It took them about an hour to see the island and about 15 more minutes to reach the beach. Yang couldn't avoid feeling nostalgic. It had been a long time since the last time she was on Patch and could not avoid touching the bandages on the right side of her body. So many things had happened since she left home and lately they were more bad than good. Without saying anything Ra began to walk and, by mere instinct, Yang followed her.

The two girls went into the forest. The leaves of the trees were completely orange thanks to autumn. The ground was also painted orange because of the grass and the leafs that fell when the wind was blowing. With each step the leaves on the ground could be heard rustling and slowly began to form a path. Yang knew where that path led and turned to look at Ra. She thought that the girl had left the boat in a place very close to their destination and Yang wondered if that had been pure coincidence or intentional. Then the two blondes could see a cliff and a bouquet of white roses in front of a grave.

The last time that Yang had been there was the day before she left for Beacon.

"Well." Ra said. "I need to make a call so I'll leave you alone. Take your time."

In a few seconds Yang was alone. She took a deep breath and slowly began to approach the grave. She was going to join hands to pray but, again, recalled the lacked of her right arm. So she just smiled a little, she didn't know what to say.

"It has been a while and you see…" She took a little pause. The wound began to hurt but Yang decided to ignore the pain. "A lot of things have happened… more bad than good."

Again, she didn't know what to say, or more specifically, Yang didn't know how to say what she wanted to say.

"Ruby told me that she came here before the beginning of the tournament and that she told you about our team. You know, team RWBY, and about all the things we did since we got together. Sometimes I think that we're really just a gang of troublemakers."

Yang let out a little laugh….What was she doing? That wasn't what she wanted to talk about. She wanted to talk about what happened in the tournament, what had happen to Beacon, and the more important thing…

"I saw my mother." Yang finally said, her face had become serious. "I was fighting in a train and… I saw her. I didn't realize that it was her until uncle showed me a picture of team STRQ. It's looks like he can tell me where I can find her and I really want to know why she left me. That's it. After that I will don't care about her anymore because you are my mom. I wasn't your own child but you took care of my like I was your's and… since Mercury incident I have been thinking about the last words you said to me."

The last words and the last time she saw Summer alive. She remembered that Summer had a mission in Haven and she didn't want her mom to go because it was too far from home. That meant days, weeks, or even months without Summer at home. Yang did all she could to prevent that. She hide Summer's weapon, tried to convince Qrow to take the mission inside of Summer, and she even "lost" all her things so Summer had to help her search for them. But, in the end, all had been in vain. She was sad and before Summer left home she told her.

"Yang. Like your name's meaning, you're such a beautiful sunshine and, because of that, I don't like to see you sad. Promise me that, no matter what, you'll keep smiling, ok?"

And Yang's answer at that time was a big "Yes." She said it with a big smile on her face.

"Since you died keeping that promise was hard. Dad and uncle changed and Ruby didn't get anything. I was sad but when I saw and heard Ruby ask for you I thought I must keep my promise, but right now…" Her voice began to crack. "I don't know what to do… I… I…"

She could not say more. She fell to the ground on her knees and tears began to emerge from her eyes without stopping. Yang knew there was only one thing that could comfort her but that would not be possible ever again. Because, what she wanted at the time… what could comfort her was…

"I need you!" She exclaimed. "I need you to hug me and tell me, "Everything will be fine!" I need your comfort! I feel so bad right now. All of Vale thinks that I'm the kind of person who would hurt someone helpless. I lost an arm and I feel weak and useless and… and… everyone is leaving me behind."

The tears were still falling. What hurt and scared her more was being left behind, or to be left completely alone.

"Raven left me before I could have a single memory of her. Dad changed when you died and uncle lost himself in the drink. Now even my team has left me. Weiss returned to Atlas, I don't know where Ruby is and… Blake, my own partner, ran away from me. I just don't want to be alone."

She continued to cry without a pause. She felt not only weak and useless but also alone. Everyone had left her, at least that' how she felt. Yang did not know how long she was there crying but before she realized it, she felt one of the petals of the flower bouquet on her cheek. It seemed that petal was wiping her tears and then Yang felt something, or someone, begin to hug her from behind.

You're not alone.

After hearing that she turned to see who was it, but the only person she saw was Ra. The girl was slowly approaching her and, when she next to her, she just sat beside her.

"How do you feel now?" The red-eyed girl asked.

Yang sniffed and cleaned her tears with her arm.

"A little better." She answered.

"I'm glad to hear that." In that moment Ra took a flower from the bouquet. "Do you think that your father left this bouquet here before he went to Vale?"

"I'm pretty sure that he wasn't the one who left this bouquet here."

Taiyang had not left that bouquet; Qrow neither. The truth was, that since Summer's death, white flowers had been appearing once a month in front of her grave. Sometimes there were just petals, sometimes a few flowers, and other times a full bouquet. They were always white roses but they never knew who put them there. Yang had always wondered who left the flowers and, after hearing that Ra, returned the flower to the bouquet and she began to look at the sky. She saw a black bird flying away from that place and Ra just smiled.

"Yeah, I wonder who it was." Ra said in low voice.

"Thanks for the hug by the way, I really needed it."

"What are you saying? I never hugged you. When you turned around I was just coming back. Remember that I was making a call?"

Yang could not hide her confusion, the hug had felt too real and if it was not Ra then… Did her mind play a joke on her? Or was there someone else in this place? Both could be the right answer.

"Are you ready for go?" Ra asked.

"Where?"

"Do you remember the first thing that I said to you?"

"Would you feel better if I say that Blake didn't run away?"

Remembering that question made Yang look at Ra with wide eyes.

"Blake Belladonna never left Beacon. My sister Mia is taking care of her and my teammate Silver, Weiss Schnee, and Ruby Rose are there too. My leader will come by to pick us up in about in five or ten minutes."

Ra words made it appear that Ruby, Weiss, and Blake had been kidnapped but, even with that thought, Yang didn't get angry or worried. She didn't know who exactly the girl in front of her was nor did she know who the people that were with her friends were, but she now knew that Ruby, Weiss and Blake were in a place infested with Grimm. Still she wasn't able to get angry with Ra and wasn't worried about her friends and sister. On the inside she felt that she could trust in Ra and felt that her team was in good hands with team SSMR. It was a strange feeling.

"But why is your team…"

"Don't ask questions." Ra interrupted. "I am only going to tell you that team SSMR's mission is to gather team RWBY."

Yang began to look at the bandages on the right side of her body. She didn't know why Ra and her teammates had that mission but, whatever they wanted, she knew that without an arm she was useless. The question, "And what can I do without an arm?" escaped from her mouth.

"What's with that?" Ra said as she touched her right arm. "I never let that stop me."

Purple eyes saw red eyes, Yang can't believe what she heard. Ra had lost an arm too? Well, her right arm was covered with bandages but it was still there. How was that possible?.

"I'm just like you." Ra said while looking at her arm. "I was trying to protect my sister from a gang of Grimm. I attacked without thinking and… I don't remember what happened next, but when I woke up my sister was fine and I quickly realized that I had lost my right arm"

"Then… why do you…?"

"Have a right arm? Well, the rehabilitation was hard and painful but I'm not gonna give you the details. Instead I ask you, do you want to come with me to Beacon or do you want to stay here?"

"I'll go with you."

"Let's wait for my leader then."

The two blondes were silent. Yang had a lot of questions about Ra, team SSMR, and about the red-eyed girl's right arm. But she decided to wait for the answers. After hearing where Blake was she only began to care about seeing her. If Blake felt guilty about what happened Yang will tell her "It isn't your fault".

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ones you want to hug Yang say "Hi", my precious sunshine girl deserve to be happy


	6. Reunion and true time

Qrow began to open his eyes. His head was hurting and quickly realized that he and Taiyang were lying on the floor. Then he remembered what had happened. _That fucking…_ a faunus girl had not only dared to leave them unconscious with a spray but also had the impertinence to take, or kidnap, his niece. Who the hell was that girl? Why did she take Yang away?

“Tai wake up, Yang has…”

He was going to said “Yang has been kidnapped.” Unfortunately, the blond was still unconscious. Then his attention was diverted to a piece of paper that was on the floor, it was more than obvious that it was a note.

_“To: Qrow Branwen.”_

Okay, a faunus that he had never seen before knew his name. That was very disturbing but, even so, he continued reading.

_“Taiyang will wake up tomorrow so don’t worry about him and if my calculations are correct your Scroll will ring in 3…2…”_

The note had been frighteningly accurate and, as he expected, the number was unknown. So, apart from his name, the girl also know his number. He really need to know how that was possible but the questions could wait for the moment as he decided to answer.

_“My calculations were correct?”_

“Frighteningly accurate.” Wait a moment… Why did he feel so confident to answer that?

_“Well, if you have questions you can ask them.”_

He wanted to know how that girl knew both his name and his phone number, but he had questions more important than those.

“Where is Yang?”

_“I didn’t kidnap her if that is what you think. She agreed to come with me and right now she is talking with someone.”_

“Who?”

_“Sorry, but I can’t tell you and, before you ask why I know your number, it’s because I need to talk with you.”_

“Continue.”

_“I recommend you stop looking for Ruby Rose. She and her teammates are in the custody of my team right now.”_

Not only had Yang been kidnapped but also Ruby. To make things worse Yang’s partner and the Schnee girl were in the same situation. And as he had already expected, a whole team was responsible for it.

“I demand you tell me the name of your team, NOW!”

_“SSMR. I’m the R by the way but don’t worry, team RWBY is in good hands.”_

“Like I believe you.” He said. He didn’t know of that supposed “team” and didn’t believe that team RWBY would be safe with someone who can knock people unconscious with a simple spray. “From my point of view you and your teammates kidnapped my nieces and their friends. I don’t care if team SSMR is a gang of girls but, if you or one of your friends do something to the girls, I swear that…”

_“I know where Ozpin is.”_

He froze after hearing those words. Qrow knew that there were a very high probability that those words were a lie but a part of him, a very little part of him, felt that they were true. Qrow wasn’t the kind of person who trusted 100% in instinct but, only for this time, he would trust in it. The girl continued speaking.

_“Look, things are simple. You have Ozpin’s cane and if you want to see him I really need that cane. So please came to Beacon at the midnight and, if it possible, come alone.”_

Beacon (A.K.A Nest of Grimm), at midnight, and ALONE. That sounded like a trap for him. An unknown team had kidnapped his nieces and two other girls, he was talking to the person who had left him unconscious in a "quiet" way, and now she told him that there was the possibility of finding Ozpin. There were many reasons to distrust everything he had heard, but still, he didn’t doubt.

“Who are you?” he asked. “Why are you and your team are doing all of this?”

_“If you want to know my name then talk to Pyrrha Nikos, and for the second question…”_ There was a brief pause and then she continued _“We are doing this for a good future.”_

The call ended after that. Qrow thought on the last words of the girl. "For a good future." What was she trying to say? If there was something he was sure of, it was that if he wanted to know the name of the girl that he had spoken to he would have to speak with the person who almost became the autumn maiden.

Meanwhile, in Pyrrha’s room, who had woken up half an hour ago the things weren’t very "quiet" to say.

“YOU TWO KISSED?! I WANT THE DETAILS! It was time, by the way.”

Yes, that was Nora’s voice which resounded easily inside and outside of the room. Pyrrha’s face was equally, or more,, red than her hair and Jaune had just learn the lesson “You don’t ask a girl why she kissed you when your friends, who don’t know anything about that, are near.” Ren just covered his ears to prevent Nora’s screams from damaging his eardrums when the door burst open causing the noise in the room to disappear in seconds. It was Qrow and he wore a really unfriendly face.

“You three.” He said pointing to those who were not injured. “Get out of here, now.”

Without a word Nora gave a military salute and took Jaune and Ren by the collar and ran out of the room. Pyrrha, on the other hand, looked at the man. She already had see him before, but she wasn’t able to remember his name.

“You are…”

“One of Ozpin’s secret Maiden-protection-squad member. I’m also Yang and Ruby’s uncle but, right now, that doesn’t matter.” He said looked at the redhead’s eyes. “I need to know what is the last thing that you remember. Don't ask why, but knowing that is very important to me."

The last thing that she remembered? She was fighting against Cinder, an arrow had hurt her foot, and then… someone saved her. Not only one person, she had been saved by two girls. She began to tell him what had happened.

_She was on the floor and she could see that her opponent had launched another arrow. She was going to throw her spear to block the arrow but could not do it. It wasn’t because the arrow was more faster than the previous one, it was because someone had tackled her before she could do something. For a moment Pyrrha thought that it was one of Cinder’s subordinates but, when she saw her “enemy,” she quickly recognized a red hood and silver eyes that she knew very well. "Ruby?" Pyrrha thought, but quickly realize that it wasn’t her friend. The girl looked like Ruby, but the color and length of her hair was different._

_“Believe me.” The girl said. “You were not going to be able to stop the arrow.”_

_“Ruby Rose?” Cinder said but, like Pyrrha did, she recognized the difference between that girl and Ruby “Who are you?”_

_“That doesn't matter.”she answered in a sarcastic manner and then she looked at Cinder with serious eyes. “Raven, now!!!”_

_In the blink of an eye someone attacked Cinder from behind. A red-eyed girl had her arms around the neck of the now new maiden and, for a little bit of time, Pyrrha thought that it was Blake. But the eye color and the blonde hair said the opposite. It seemed surprising to hear Cinder wrestle with the unknown girl to remove the girl’s arms for her neck._

_“Surprised?” The blonde said. “You may be a maiden now but your still be a human and you need air, right?”_

_“You fucking kid” Cinder eyes began to shine; that was a very bad sign. She was going to use her maiden powers._

_“Summer, what are you waiting for?!”_

_The silver eyes of the girl began to shine. The dragon Grimm roared when Summer saw hm and Cinder. Something big was coming but the red-hood girl looked exhausted. She was sweating, panting, and she had placed one of her hands on her head as if she was having the worse headache ever. After that…_

“I do not what happened next. The last thing I remember is a big silver sheen and then… nothing.”

“C-come again? What were the names of the girls who helped you?”

Qrow was waiting, and hoping, that he had heard those names wrong.

“Summer and Raven”

And at the end he didn’t hear them wrong. _Summer and Raven_ were two names that he had never expected to hear together again.

He thanked Pyrrha for telling him what happened and after that he left the room. He couldn’t stop to think about what the redhead had told him. A silver-eyed girl wearing a hood which had a red-eyed girl as a partner and their names had to be Summer and Raven respectively. This had to be a very bad joke.

He had questions, a lot of them, and if he want the answers he would have to go to Beacon, at midnight.

.

.

.

The first thing that Weiss did when she arrived at Beacon was watch her father’s ship disappear over the horizon. After that Silver accompanied her to team RWBY’s room. When they arrived at the room Weiss was speechless to see a black-haired girl who looked exactly like Yang. In her opinion that was scary. She also saw Blake lying in bed, possibly asleep. Silver disappeared after a few seconds and when they were left alone Weiss asked Mia a lot of questions but, like in Silver’s case, most of the question’s answers were “Classified.”

Exactly one hour later Silver came back accompanied by Ruby.

The first thing that Ruby said when she got to the room and saw Mia was scream, “A BLACK-HAIR CLONE OF YANG!!!” But, as soon as she saw Weiss, everything lost importance and she quickly hugged her partner. Ruby almost choked her in the process but Weiss did not complain. Blake was still asleep and Ruby didn’t ask any questions because she only cared about hugging her partner at that moment.

Finally, about two hours after the arrival of Ruby, Yang arrived. She was accompanied by two other girls.

“Sis!” Silver, Mia and Ruby cried while they embraced their respective sisters. Su and Ra sighed and reminded their sisters that they had not been separated for a long time. Yang was the only one who returned the hug to her younger sister, everyone became silent before…

“Okay, it’s answer time.” Weiss said as she faced the four unknown girls. “Who are you? What do you want from us? And why do all of you seem to know us?”

The last question was more a group doubt that a serious question but Silver and Mia start to laugh.

“Two of those questions can’t be answered.” Mia said

“But we will answer the first question.” Silver completed.

“We are team SSMR (Summer)!” They yelled in unison. “Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven, at your service.”

The smiles on the faces of Silver and Mia quickly disappeared when they realized they'd just said something that should not be said. Ruby looked at Summer and Yang looked at Raven.  Hearing the name of their respective mothers was surprising and unexpected for both of them. They really didn’t know how to react and Silver and Mia were looking at their sisters with fear and they shouted, “We really sorry!!” Summer and Raven’s faces only showed resignation.

“Just forget it.” Raven said. “You two already said our real names, so just forget it.”

But Raven words were ignored. The blonde sighed as she saw, as her two teammates still apologizing, Yang and Ruby were still surprised. Weiss looked more confused than she already was and Blake was still asleep.

“I’m going to sleep.”

Without saying anything else Raven went to Yang and Blake bunk. While she was climbing to the top bed she saw Blake’s back, _“You know that you can’t pretend to be asleep forever.”_ Hearing those words made Blake’s body stiffen, but she didn’t look at Raven. She needed her friends to continue thinking that she was sleeping. Once Raven was in a comfortable position in the bed she wished her friends a good night.

“Who gave you permission to go to sleep!” Yes, Weiss was more than pissed.

“Sis, doing that isn’t nice…….but I’m tired too.”

Then Mia took Yang’s left hand and she brought her to the bed where Blake was “sleeping.” According to the black-haired girl, Yang’s aura had helped to close a big part of her wound, but that didn’t mean that the wound might not start bleeding at any time. So it was a good idea that the blonde slept near someone who could see in the dark if that came to pass. Mia helped Yang get in a comfortable position and, after that, Mia climbed to the top bed with her sister. Weiss got more pissed after that.

“I repeat. Who gave you permission to go to sleep?!”

“Oh come on, Weiss.” Ruby said. “Aren’t you tired? I’m tired.”

“If you like we can continue talking tomorrow. I promise that we will answer all we can.” Summer said as she took her sister’s shoulders. “It’s bedtime, Silver.”

Of course Weiss was in total disagreement with Summer’s suggestion, but she couldn’t say anything because she felt Ruby’s head resting on her shoulder. If Weiss was honest with herself, she was tired too. A lot of things had happened that day but she saw that the two sisters went... to the upper bed of the bunk that she shared with Ruby. Raven and Mia were sleeping together, Yang and Blake were sleeping together, Summer and Silver were sleeping together, and there were only one bed left.

“Cool, this is going to be the first time that you and me sleep together.” Ruby said. Weiss sighed but they didn’t have another option.

The lights went out and the room was in silence, or at least so it seemed…

“Weiss, are you awake?” Ruby said looking as her partner’s “sleep” face. “Weiss, Weeeeiiiissss.”

“I’m trying to sleep. Can’t you see that?”

“Sorry.”

There was a silent moment and then Ruby hugged Weiss.

“I was sad.” The red-hooded girl said. “I was very sad when I heard that you had returned to Atlas.”

“Ruby…”

Weiss really want to say that she didn’t want to return to Atlas and that her father had forced her to do it but, before she could say something, Ruby continued speaking.

“And, if I honest, I was thinking of going to Atlas and take you back by force.”

“Are you serious? That’s practically what Silver did.”

Well, technically Silver “kidnapped” her on the way to Atlas, but that was more or less the same. Ruby said that she was happy for that while she increased the strength of the hug.

“Sorry, by the way.”

Ruby stopped the hug. What did Weiss mean with that sorry?

“It was my fault that you ended up unconscious. I sent you to Pyrrha’s battle alone.”

“I don’t care about that.”

Ruby was going to say, _“It wasn’t your fault, Silver and Mia are the ones who left me unconscious.”_ But she decided to not say it. The last thing that she wanted was Weiss trying to beat Silver and Mia for that, and again, Ruby hugged Weiss.

“Why are you hugging me so much?”

“Because I missed you and I am cold. I don’t get why people call you Ice queen, your so warm.”

Weiss’s face turned red. She was embarrassed, but she didn’t stop the embrace.

“Shut up and go to sleep now!”

“Yes ma’am”

**Meanwhile, Yang and Blake side.**

“Blake, are you awake?”

Yes she was, but she didn’t want to face her blonde partner.

“You know? I was pretty sad when my uncle told me that you were missing. I thought that you had run away.”

That was the idea but Mia stopped her.

“Tell me, do you want to run away from us because you want to keep us safe from that freaking red-haired guy.”

Yang could read her mind or something like that? But yes, that was the reason.

“Does your wound hurt?” Blake finally said.

_“So you were awake.”_ Yang wanted to say that the wound didn’t hurt in that moment but that would be a big lie. So, with her left arm, she began to pet her partner’s hair.

Thanks to that physical contact, Blake turned to look at Yang. Blake felt so guilty when she saw her partner’s right side and she began to said, “I’m sorry”.

“Oh, come on! How many times do you want to say that? It’s not your fault. I was the one who attacked that guy without thinking.”

“But he attacked you because you are my friend and, because of that, your arm…”

“I don’t care about that anymore.” She touched her forehead to Blake’s so they could see each others eyes. “You are here. You’re fine and that’s the only thing that I care about right now.”

“Yang…”

“I can learn how to live with only one arm. So don’t feel guilty, okay?”

Mia had finished Yang’s new arm before Weiss arrived but the girl had begged her to not say anything about it because Mia wanted that to be a surprise for the next day. The arm was hidden under the bed.

“Thank you.” Blake said, hiding her face in Yang’s shoulder.

“For what?”

“For not hating me.”

“How could I hate you? You are my partner and, more important than that, you are my friend.”

Yang could feel Blake’s tears on her shoulder. The blonde just smiled and, as well as she could, she hugged her friend.

.

.

.

Summer and Raven woke up in the middle of the night.

The two girls walked quietly to avoid waking someone else. Despite being a faunus, Raven could not see in the dark so the two girls had to be careful to not hit anything. They were able to get out of the room without any problems and, when they left the dorms, they encountered a group of Grimm. They didn’t use their weapons and they didn’t showed signs of wanting to attack. The blonde sighed and told her partner, "I leave everything in your hands." Summer stepped forward and showed her eyes which were giving off a small silvery sheen. The Grimm began to slowly move away from the girl as a sign of fear.

_Out of the way._ Those words were more than enough to make the Grimm run away from the girls. Summer’s eyes returned to normal but she looked very exhausted. She was going to faint, but her friend took her by the shoulders before that could happen. Then, using Raven as a support, the two girls continued walking toward the entrance of the tower. When they arrived they just stood there, waiting. Not a single Grimm approached them and the reasons were more than obvious; they were afraid of Summer. Then, without warning, Qrow appeared in front of them. Better said, Qrow had fell from the sky in front of them.

“Having a semblance which turns you into a bird looks very useful.” Summer said.

“Okay, I am not gonna ask how you know that and I’m not gonna ask why you look exactly like Ruby either. Just tell me where is Oz.”

“Give me that cane and follow us.” Raven said.

Although he didn’t want to, Qrow did exactly what the blonde told to him to do. He was shocked when he realized that the girls were going directly to the basement. Counting him, there were only four people who know about that place; six if he counted Jaune and Pyrrha. Qrow didn’t ask any questions because he knew that those girls would not answer, so he said nothing.

The basement was a total mess. The floor looked burned and some walls were broken, it was clear that it had witnessed a great fight. Raven hit the floor three times with the cane and a small slab of the floor disappeared leaving a hole. The blonde then inserted the cane into the hole and spun it as if it were a key. One of big slabs began to rise revealing stairs going down.

“What the hell…” Qrow said his thoughts by accident. Summer and Raven began down the stairs and he followed them.

Summer told him that Beacon had more of one secret room, but only one person knew the place where they were going. Ozpin was obvious answer as to who that was. They continued down and ended up coming to a small room which looked exactly like an office. The only things that were there were several piles of books and a desk. Ozpin was sitting at the desk and he looked terrible. Part of his clothes were damaged and he had a lot of wounds on his body. It was more than obvious that his right leg was broken but nobody knew who looked more shocked, Qrow or Ozpin.

“Unlike normal wounds, the wounds inflicted by the powers of a maiden take more time to heal. In normal conditions your leg would heal in one month but, right now, that leg will heal in 6 months or more.” Summer said.

“You left Cinder Fall believing that she had defeated you. But the truth was that you ran away to this place and your plan was wait here until your wounds heal.” Raven completed, leaving the cane on the desk.

“I’m surprised that you two know that.” Ozpin said trying to sound calm but he began to see Summer eyes. One thought in specific came to his mind, _“She has silver eyes.”_

“Okay, I think that I speak for everyone here when I say that you two need to answer some questions.” Qrow said. “How do you two know about this place? Why did team SSMR kidnap team RWBY? What do you want?”

Summer and Raven looked each other in the eyes. The two knew that it was time to tell all of the truth. That was the reason that they were there with Qrow and Ozpin, but they didn’t know how to start. Fortunately, Raven thought of a easy way to say it.

“Well, as Mia would say: Basically our future is shit and we are here to fix it.”

Ozpin looked at Qrow and Qrow looked at Ozpin. Then they both looked at the girls. Those two girls was trying to say that they were from the… no, no, and more no. That option was really dumb, but then Summer was the next to talk.

“We come from the future, twenty years exactly.”

“Oh, ha-ha, if you two are from the future then I’m the fucking King of Remnant.”

“Qrow, be nice.” Ozpin said and then he began to look at Summer and Raven. “That sounds hard to believe, but please tell us why you two are here, in the past.”

Again the girls looked each other in the eyes. They both sighed, they knew that Qrow definitely wasn’t going to believe in what they going to say. Ozpin was different even if he said, “ _That sounds hard to believe.”_ The fact that he asked why they were in the past shows that he trust in them. As team SSMR’s leader, Summer was the one to answer the question.

“We are here to avoid a lot of deaths because Remnant will be destroyed if we don’t do something…” Summer kept silent for a couple of seconds. It seemed that what she wanted to say was difficult. Raven put her right hand on Summer’s shoulder as a sign of support and then she continued, “In fourteen years from now… team RWBY will die.”

The room was completely silent after that. That was very hard to believe but, if it was true that Remmant was destroyed then, who did it? That was what Ozpin thought, but Qrow didn’t believe in a single word. He definitely didn’t believe in the “Team RWBY will die in fourteen years” part. Qrow asked why those two girls cared so much about Ruby and her friends. Raven was the one to answer that.

“What kind of kid don’t want to save her parents’ lives?”

Silence. The girls were trying to say that they were…

“As Qrow already knows my name is Summer, but my _whole_ name is Summer _Rose-Schnee._ The oldest daughter of Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee.”

“I’m Raven and my whole name is Raven _Xiao Long-Belladonna_. Daughter of Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna.”

Qrow looked at Ozpin and Ozpin looked at Qrow. That had been too unexpected and hard to believe too but, before they could ask any questions, Raven put a piece of paper in the desk and she told them “Before any question take a look in this.” On that paper was writing detailing the things that will happen in in the future, that paper was….

 

The bad-future-time-line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quickly announcement, next chapter is a character profile chapter so if anyone have a question about Summer, Silver, Mia or Raven feel free to ask and I'll answer it in the character profile, see you next time.


	7. Character profile

**Summer Rose-Schnee.**

**Age:** 15

 **Birthday:** March 15th

 **Hair:** Dull red

 **Eyes:** Silver

 **Outfit:** She wears a long-sleeved white dress with blue details and a pair of blue boots. She also wears a red hood like Ruby.

 **Weapon:** Basically a white version of Crescent Rose. The only difference between Summer’s weapon and Ruby’s is a compartment filled with different types of dust that she uses in bullets or independently. In honor to her mothers, Summer’s weapon’s name is “White Rose.”

 **Semblance:** She inherited the Schnee family semblance, but she doesn’t use it often. When she use it during in a fight she only summons a blizzard of red and white petals to distract the enemy.

 **Extra information:** She has a big scar on her chest and little scars in her arms. She got them while protecting Silver from a group of Grimm. Physically, she is identical to Ruby but, unlike Ruby, she doesn’t like cookies or any sweet things. The only exception were the cookies that Ruby and Weiss used to bake for her and Silver. Summer is the only member of team SSMR who has long hair, and that’s because she wanted to have her hair like Weiss’s.

 

**Silver Rose-Schnee.**

**Age:** 14

 **Birthday:** June 9th

 **Hair:** Reddish white

 **Eyes:** Blue

 **Outfit:** She wears a short-sleeved red dress with black details, a long-sleeved white sweatshirt with hood and a pair of black boots.

 **Weapon:** A red version of Winter’s sabre. Silver really wanted to have a scythe like her sister, but her aunt told her “A small weapon will be better for you.” So Winter taught her how to use a sword. Since Silver likes cool weapons, she was able to put a shotgun function in her sword. How she did that is something only her and Mia knows. Silver’s weapon’s name is “Petal Dance”.

 **Semblance:** Although Weiss was the one who birthed her, Silver didn’t inherited the Schnee family semblance. But Ruby told her once that she got something “much better.” For a short period of time, around 10 seconds, Silver can move herself at the speed of sound. If someone takes her hand before she uses her semblance, and as long as that person doesn’t release Silver’s hand, the two are able to move at the speed of sound together. She can use her semblance about five times in a row. After that she needs a break of a few hours.

 **Extra information:** Her aunt, Winter, and grandfather, Weiss’s dad, were the ones who named her. “Silver” can be a very simple name, but the two Schnees had many problems trying to reach that name. Silver loves fairy tales and sweet things, especially cookies. Like Ruby she really loves cool weapons. Her sister and cousins are very overprotective of her sometimes as she is the youngest member of the team.

 

**Mia Xiao Long-Belladonna.**

**Age:** 16

 **Birthday:** October 20th

 **Hair:** Black

 **Eyes:** Purple

 **Outfit:** Mia wears a white crop top T-shirt, shorts, and a pair of brown shoes. She wears black bandages on her arms and they cover from her wrists to her elbows. She doesn’t have any scars on her arms, Mia only wears that bandages because, in her own words, she looks really cool with them. She also wears a black sweatshirt tied to her waist and a yellow scarf around her neck.

 **Weapon:** A pair of orange bracelets in their deactivated form but, in their active form, those bracelets turn into gauntlets. The gauntlets have a compartment for dust. Mia uses red dust in that form every punch is literally a fire punch. The name of her weapon is “Dragon fist.”

 **Semblance:** Mia can turn her shadow into ribbons for attack or defense and the ribbons have a maximum length of 1 km. The number of ribbons that she can create is unlimited. She also can turn her shadow into a shield to protect her friends and herself. Just for fun Mia named her semblance “Shadow Control.”

 **Extra information:** She is younger than Raven by twenty minutes. When Mia uses her semblance, the color of her right eye change to yellow. Also Mia really enjoys naming her sister’s and cousin's’ semblances. “Blizzard of Petals” for Summer’s, “Freeze Speed” for Silver’s, and “Eruption” for Raven’s. Ironwood and Penny’s father were the ones who taught her how to build, damage, fix, and re-build things. Sometimes she feels jealous of Raven because Raven was the one in inherited the cat ears. Though. Mia inherited the faunus ability to see in the dark and she is a totally tuna maniac.

 

**Raven Xiao Long-Belladonna.**

**Age:** 16

 **Birthday:** October 20th

 **Hair:** Blonde

 **Eyes:** Red

 **Outfit:** Raven wears a yellow T-shirt, a short-sleeved brown jacket, jeans, brown shoes, and a black scarf around her neck.

 **Weapon:** A pair of black Ko-wakizashi (katanas of no more than 30 cm of long) with yellow ribbons. They don’t have an extra function like the others weapons, but she doesn’t care about that. In honor of her moms, Raven’s weapon’s name is “Bumblebee.”

 **Semblance:** Raven’s aura can generate fire around her body. The bad part of Raven’s semblance is that it’s linked to her emotions. As she gets angrier the flames become stronger. She really hates that part of her semblance but, fortunately, the flames can only hurt grimm not people and the flames are capable of melting bullets, weapons, or any inanimate object before they are able to touch her.

 **Extra information:** She lost her right arm at the same time that Summer got her scars. Two months of rehabilitation was more than enough for her to be able to use her prosthesis. Raven really hates it when people mess with her hair or ears; family is the only exception. She used to hate her eyes and name because a lot of kids constantly teased her, “Those red-eyes are creepy” and “Why your name like a bird if you’re a cat?” But that was only until Yang told her why her name was “Raven.” Since then she has felt very proud of her eyes and name.

**Extra information in general.**

Summer/Raven and Silver/Mia are partners. They were the ones who decided that.

**How Summer/Silver and Raven/Mia call her mothers.**

**Ruby:** Mommy (Sometimes mum)

 **Weiss:** Mother or mom.

 **Blake:** Mama.

 **Yang:** Mom or mum, but she liked call herself as “Dad”.

The fact that Summer and Silver names start with “S” and end up with “er” was Ruby idea (And yes, she was able to convince Weiss about that.) That was the reason why Winter and her father had problems when they were searching for a name for Silver.

Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda, Ironwood, and Winter are still alive in the future.

Summer, Silver, Raven, and Mia didn’t learn how to fight until their mothers died.

**How old were the girls when their mothers died?**

Raven and Mia: 10

Summer: 9

Silver: 8

**Who trained the girls?**

Winter: Taught Silver and Raven how to use swords and taught Summer how to use the dust in her weapon.

Qrow: Taught Summer how to use a scythe and taught self-defense to all the girls.

Ozpin: Taught martial arts to Mia.

Glynda: Gave advice to the girls in how they can use combinations attacks.

Ironwood: Taught Raven how to use her robo-arm. Plus he and Penny’s dad taught Mia how to build and repair equipment.

**Who taught Summer how to use the silver-eyes power?**

No one in particular. Summer learned (as she was able to do by herself) how to use that power. But, without formal training, using her eyes’ powers gives her headaches or makes her feel weak.

**Names of the combinations attacks.**

Summer/Raven: Orange Flower.

Silver/Mia: Gray Storm.

Summer/Mia: Black Rose.

Silver/Raven: White Fire.

Raven/Mia: Dragon Lady.

Summer/Silver: Double Rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god!!! Vol. 4 premier is in October, I can wait!!!  
> Well, I'll publish chapter 7 tomorrow or the thursday because Ilax have to edit it, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo


	8. The bad future time line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I say yesterday, here is the new chapter and before we start let me explain some things. I prefer to start the time-line with the total separation of team RWBY but in the time-line I have Pyrrha’s death (The word death is in quotations by the way), Ruby using the silver-eyes power, the fall of Beacon, and all the things who happen before Ruby began the travel to Mistral, that’s all for now just enjoy.

**-Ruby:** Went to Mistral together with team JN_R/Two months after that they got information about Cinder and her team at the Haven academy/After four months they discovered who Cinder’s Boss is/A lot of time passed until they learned how to get to Cinder’s Boss place/JN_R vs Cinder and her group and Ruby vs Salem/ Ruby lost her right eye.

 **-Weiss:** Winter taught her how to use her semblance/Received information about how Yang is, but nothing about Blake or Ruby/Yang called her and told her about Ruby/Argues with her father when she tell him that she will leave Atlas to search for her team leader/She and Yang go after Ruby.

 **-Blake:** Lives in abandoned houses for a while/Re-joins the White Fang so that her team will be safe/Learns about the alliance between the White Fang and Cinder group/Although she learned about the alliance, she didn’t know where her friends were.

 **-Yang:** Still depressed for a while/Taiyang convinces her to talk with Summer/Still wondering where Blake is and why she left her (Realized how she really felt about her)/Decides to investigate where Ruby went/Called Weiss/She and Weiss went after Ruby.

 **-** Reappearance of Ozpin (That happened seven months after Ruby left Vale)

 **-** Raven Branwen saves Ruby after she lost her eye/JNPR reunion/Raven opens a portal and Ruby and team JNPR leave Cinder’s boss’s place/Found Weiss and Yang on the way back.

 **-** RW_Y reunion after a whole year of be separate

**Return to Vale**

**-** Instead of evaporating on death, the dragon Grimm breaks down into a powder and the Grimm leave Beacon/Beacon begins to be rebuilt.

-Penny’s dad gives Yang a robot-arm/Six month of rehabilitation

 **-** Yang talks with Raven/Roman and Neo are still alive, they betrayed Salem and told everyone what they knew/Everyone begins to make a plan for defeating Salem.

 **-** The powers of the Spring and Winter maidens are stolen/Salem’s group and the White Fang begin to attack Vale/Beacon Academy vs White Fang/Yang vs Blake/After a battle in which Yang won, Blake told her why she left

 **-** Yang and Blake vs Adam (Don’t even need to say who win)/In the middle of the war, Cinder’s powers are stolen

 **-** A year after RW_Y reunion, RWBY gets together again.

 **-** RWBY vs Salem/Salem’s death/Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, and a big part of the White Fang go to the prision.

**Five days later**

**-** A big earthquake shakes the four kingdoms/Exitium had awaken

 **-** Raven gives Qrow the four maidens powers/He hides them in a safe place

 **-** Exitium attacks Vale/Everyone tries to defeat him, but its useless

 **-** Raven Branwen sacrifice herself/Exitium is sealed

 **-** Beginning of the “Ten years of peace.”

**During the ten years of peace**

**-** Yang told Blake what she really felt about her/Blake said that she felt the same

 **-** Thanks to Yang, Weiss and Ruby realize what they really feel for each other

 **-** Weddings, weddings everywhere.

 **-** Raven and Mia born.

 **-** Summer born.

 **-** Silver born.

-Quiets and peaceful times

**End of the ten years of peace, things who happen in a period of two years.**

**-** Exitium seal broken/He stole the four maidens powers/Grimms began to attack the four kingdoms/No one can defeat him.

 **-** Atlas quickly become the last refuge for humanity and faunus.

 **-** Three of the four kingdoms are destroyed/For some reason the Exitium don’t attack Atlas

 **-** The silver-eyes powers are required if Exitium want to be defeated/Ruby and Weiss refused to let someone tell Summer about her eyes’ powers/RWBY decides to defeat Exitium

 **-** Team RWBY’s death.

.

.

.

Hundreds, no, thousands of question were in Qrow and Ozpin minds after reading the timeline. That timeline told them the things that will happen in the next fourteen years and a lot of them were very hard to believe. Summer and Raven watched the two men read the piece of paper again. The girls knew that the timeline only had a summary of the information, but everything that was written there was the most relevant information of the next fourteen years. But, what they felt was too little information, to Qrow and Ozpin, was the opposite.

All that Ozpin could think while he was reading the paper again was _"Who is Exitium?"_ If his memory doesn’t fail him, "Exitium" meant "Destruction" in latin. But why did the paper say that he woke up five days after Salem’s death. Exactly who, or what, was this "person," if that word could be used. On the other hand, Qrow…

 He took the paper, crumpled it as much as he could, and threw it to the girls.

“Like I’m gonna believe that!!!” He exclaimed, his voice held intense anger. “Anyone can say that they came from the future and write a supposed “timeline.” I don’t care if Ozpin believes in that lie, I don’t believe anything!!!”

Summer and Raven looked each other to the eyes  and nodded. The silver-eyesd girl went to where Ozpin was, she was almost sure that he believed everything that she and Raven had said but she needed to know that he really believed in all the information. Summer approached Ozpin and began to whisper something in his ear. Ozpin’s face did not seem to be surprised but gradually his face began to change until both his eyes and mouth were wide open. He had heard something that only he could knew because he never had told anyone. “Now do you believe us?" Were Summer’s words, and Ozpin’s response was “Yes.” His doubts had vanished and now he no longer doubted that the two girls in that room really came from the future.

Qrow continued defending his opinion, though Ozpin believed in the girls he wouldn’t. The crazy assertion "We come from the future," the things which were written in the timeline that he had read a few seconds ago, and, which made everything even less credible, was the assertion that Ruby and Weiss were Summer’s mothers and Yang and Blake were Raven’s mothers. That was impossible, but then he heard the next words.

“Raven Branwen was the one who killed Summer Rose, or at least that’s what she told you.”

Raven felt someone pull on her shirt and within seconds she was face to face with Qrow. He was furious. It was supposed to be that he was the only one who knew that, and he had sworn to never tell anyone. He demanded the faunus tell him how she knew that and what she meant with "at least that's what she told you." But what Raven did say had nothing to do with those questions.

“You know, in the future I respect you, but right now you’re acting like a real jerk.”

“I don’t care, you just talk.” He said as he clenched his right fist. "I do not like to hurt children, but I can make an exception with you."

“You want to know the truth behind your sister? Then I will tell you the truth!!!”

“Raven, that’s enough!!!” Summer cried. “Remember, there are things that we can’t say.”

“Qrow, let go of that girl.” Ozpin said.

Both Qrow and Raven just said “Tsk” and then Qrow let go of Raven. Even so, he wasn’t able to stop looking at the girl, her eyes to be more specific. That red color brought both good and bad memories about his twin and the name of that girl just had to be specifically "Raven." He did not like to admit it, but the fact that these two girls knew the truth about the death of Summer Rose, something that only the Branwen twins knew, it was more than enough to demonstrate that they really came from the future. That and the fact that the girls were almost an exact copies of their mothers.

The room was silent for a few seconds until Qrow asked next. _“How can two women can have kids?”_ Well, that question was reasonable. _“Science is awesome, science banzai!”_ Was Summer and Raven’s answer. Qrow had a lot to assimilate so he was in silent for a while and Ozpin asked the questions that needed a response.

“Okay, Miss Rose-Schnee and Miss Xiao Long-Belladonna.” Saying the surnames of the girls felt strange, but there was no time to worry about such things. “About the “JNPR reunion” part, could you tell me how that's possible.”

According to the first incidents that were written in the timeline, Pyrrha had been killed by Cinder, so how did team JN_R return to be team JNPR after the battle against Salem? The answer was easy, Cinder never killed Pyrrha. She just can’t do it because the Maiden’s powers can hurt people, but they can’t kill them. It simply could not happen and if they tried to murder someone their powers won’t work. That was a restriction that the same hermit who gave the powers to the original maidens had created, and that restriction will never disappear.

The truth was that Cinder just transported Pyrrha to Salem’s place and they used her as a hostage when Ruby and, at that moment, team JN_R fought against them. That was the reason why Ruby had lost an eye. The leader of team RWBY had focused more on saving Pyrrha during the fight and Salem had used it to hurt her. Knowing how Ruby focuses on a fight, using one of her friends as a hostage to hurt her made a lot of sense.

“And the “Raven give Qrow the four maidens powers” part?”

“Salem isn’t the only one who knows how to steal powers.” Summer said. “But sorry, we can’t answer that.”

The girls must have their reasons for not answering that, so he asked the next question. "Who, or what, is Exitium?" But, before he could open his mouth, Ozpin saw Qrow grab Summer in the same way in which he had grabbed Raven a few minutes ago.

“Are you saying that my sister stole the maiden’s powers and she gave them to **_me?_** ” For him, the part that said _"Raven gave Qrow the four maidens’ powers”_ was strange since those powers only can be transferred to women. But, the fact that she had stolen the powers from the maidens and had specifically given them to him to hide them from someone was even more strange. “Raven became an unknown to me when she killed Summer, and now you tell me that she stole the maidens’ powers and give them to me? Furthermore, how did she steal the powers of the **_four_** maidens? I hate to admit it, but nobody knows where the summer Maiden is.”

Effectively, the whereabouts of the Summer maiden was a total mystery to the members of the maidens protection squad, or at least so it seemed. Raven turned to Ozpin and told him "You can not hide the truth forever." Ozpin did not make any gesture and just watched the blonde ask Qrow to drop her partner.

“There’s a lot of things that you don’t know about your sister.” The blonde said. “And I would tell you what they are, but that isn’t my duty. That’s something that you have to discover by your own, or wait until someone else tells you about it, whichever happens first.”

Qrow had already released Summer and indeed he had many questions about his sister. Many of them were related to the timeline that he had just read but, if none of those questions would be answered, then it wasn’t worth asking them.

"Okay." Summer said while adjusting her hood. "I guess now you guys are gonna ask, who or what is Exitium."

“And let us answer that with another question.” Raven said. “Nobody has wondered what happened to the hermit who gave the magic power to the four maidens?”

If Ozpin and Qrow had the opportunity to answer the question, both would have said 'No'. The maiden’s story had been told for generations and they never knew what happened with the hermit. Before they could say something, Summer was the next to speak.

“Exitium, Salem, the maidens, and…” Summer paused for a moment while raising her right hand to her face, to the height of her eyes to be more precise. “The silver-eyed people. Everything is related but saying “Why” isn’t our duty.”

Summer turned to look at Raven but the blonde already knew what she had to do. Taking Qrow’s right hand, she gave him a kind of disc. It was the size of his palm and had a width of 3 cm. In the center of the disc was a sort of blue lens and on one of the sides was a red button. Qrow was going to press the red button but Raven stopped him. Apparently the disc was a kind of recorder since the blonde told him that if he pressed the red button the video it had inside would be projected and would be impossible to pause.

“You and Ozpin will return to the Vale safe zone.” Raven said. “And you two will watch that video with Glynda Goodwitch and James Ironwood. It’s important that you four know about the Exitium and his relationship with Salem, the maidens, and the silver-eyed people.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me to bring those two with me?” Qrow asked “Furthermore, why did you give me this thing?”

“Because your future-self told me “Give the recorder to my past-self” and, about the first question. Reason #1, you can get here in a very easy way thanks to your semblance. Reason #2, their future-selves gave us those instructions.”

Qrow looked at the recorder. There was a lot of information on that recorder but he already know about Salem, the maidens, and the silver-eyed people. But, like Ozpin, he didn’t know about “Exitium” and who knows, maybe that video will give them information that even Ozpin didn’t know.

“We will take you back to Vale.” Summer said. “We have one of the White Fang ships at our disposal, so please follow us.”

The red-hooded girl helped Ozpin to stand up and also offered to serve as a support so he could walk better. Ozpin thought that he really needed to treat his broken leg and the two of them started up the stairs to leave the room. The only ones who stayed behind were Qrow and Raven. Raven had already stepped on the first stair when Qrow said, "Wait." The blonde thought that maybe he wanted to say or ask something that he couldn’t say in front of Ozpin or Summer, and indeed it was.

“Who named you? Yang or her partner?”

Qrow could understand why Ruby’s future-daughter’s name was “Summer,” but he couldn’t understand why Yang’s future-daughter's name was “Raven.” It didn’t make any sense.

“In the first place my Mama has a name, and it’s Blake Belladonna.”

“Whatever, just answer the question.”

“Yang.”

 _Yang?_ Yang’s future-self had named her daughter Raven? But, Why? Raven, his twin, had been outside of Yang’s life since… well, since the blonde was a one-month-old baby. He knew that Yang didn’t hate Raven, but she didn’t love her either. So **_why_** did Yang name her daughter after her mother.

“Why?” he ended up saying.

“A lot of things happened between mom and gra…” Raven was going to use the word “Grandma,” but maybe hearing that word will be a little strange to Qrow. “I mean, Summer and I really want to tell you everything, but we can’t. So let me tell you this.”

Qrow turned to look at the girl and her red eyes. Those eyes were definitely a copy of his twin’s eyes, not only in the color but also in the way that she was looking at him.

“The day when my mom told me why she named me “Raven” was a day I’ve never felt so proud of my eyes.”

Neither Raven nor Qrow said anything after that and they climbed the stairs to leave the room. Qrow looked at the blonde and then he looked at the recorder in his hand. Maybe the answers that he was searching for were in the video.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be something like a “Transition chapter” because I want to develop the relationship between RWBY and SSMR, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed the chapter, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo


	9. A little family moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this is the more long chapter that I had wrote....for now, as always enjoy the chapter

“SO COOOOOOLLLLLLL!!!!!”

Of every person in the room, Ruby was the most excited one. Weiss and Blake didn’t know how to react or what to say, Summer, Silver, and Mia didn’t show any surprise, and Yang… she was looking at the metal arm on the bed.

Raven had removed the bandages of her right arm.

2 hours ago, with the exception of Summer and Raven, the girls had woken up and ate some food that team SSMR had brought with them. It wasn’t much; biscuits, cookies, canned food, water, and a lot of Tuna. Yang had some trouble handling the food with her left arm, but that was nothing that couldn’t be solved with a little help. Weiss was ready to get answers for her questions but, before she could ask something, Summer gave an indication to Mia and then the black-hair girl took out the robotic arm which was underneath Blake’s bed.

 _“Yang needs this.”_ Were Mia’s words, and Raven began to remove her bandages.

Ruby couldn’t stop looking at the faunus’ arm. She was completely amazed. She had never imagined that something like that was possible and began to touch and inspect Raven’s arm. It was very obvious that she was looking for some hidden function, joints, and structure. Ruby was delighted with everything.

Weiss was speechless. She had heard rumors that it was possible to incorporate a fully functional prosthesis in someone that had lost some part of his body, but she had believed that it was only a rumor and never believed that was really possible. Like Ruby, she touched the arm to make sure it wasn't a joke and indeed it was not.

Blake was looking at the exact point where the flesh became metal. It was the shoulder. From the shoulder down, Raven’s right arm was pure metal. She turned to look at Mia. The girl was trying to conceal it, but Blake could see a small trail of guilt on her face. After all, Mia believed it was her fault that her sister had lost the arm and, in a matter of seconds, Blake gaze landed on Yang.

Yang touched the bandages on her right side and felt a great mix of feelings inside her. She felt happy because she would have two arms again, confused because she didn't understand how they would connect a prosthesis to her body, surprised to see the “why” Raven covered her right arm with bandages, and... she didn’t know how to describe the last feeling.

It was strange. Yang knew that she would have a right arm again. Mia had worked hard on making that prosthesis exclusively for her and, after seeing Raven, she knew that a prosthesis could be used in a very natural way but still...

“It’s strange to think about replacing something that you believed was lost forever. That something that you had your whole life is replaced by something that, at first glance, is the same but, at the same time, very different.”

Yang turned to look at Raven and she watched how the girl was covering her arm with the bandages. Yang then noticed that the only people who were still in the room were her and Raven. _When did that happen?_ She had been so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t realize when all the others left the room. With a slightly forced smile, Yang told Raven that the girl had said exactly what she was thinking. The faunus responded that she had felt the same the day that she got her own prosthesis, later Raven told Yang that she should lie down on the bed tso they could get things started. Apparently, Mia only knew the procedure to build a prosthesis but was unaware of how to attach them. The same applied for Summer and Silver. Raven was the opposite of her sister, she didn't know how to build them, but she knew how to incorporate a prosthesis into the body.

“Listen, this will hurt. Unfortunately, I can’t use anesthesia because I need to know that your nerves are being connected correctly.” The red-eyed girl said. “So feel free to scream or bite something, whatever you want.”

“Is it not necessary to wait for the wound to heal?”

“No, it isn’t. Mainly because I have to reopen the wound to access to the nerves.”

“I see.” Yang said while she felt her bandages being removed delicately. She was prepared to feel a great pain at any moment and closed her eyes as soon as she heard the words, "I'm going to start." Yang did not know how long the procedure would last, but she was sure of this, that time would feel eternal.

.

.

.

“Believe us when we say, it isn’t nice to watch that procedure. Besides, Raven needs absolute concentration, so it’s better to leave her alone with Yang.” Summer said.

Ruby, Weiss, and Blake, especially Blake, had insisted on staying in the room, but failed to convince Summer let them do that. So now everyone was in the hall waiting for an indication so they could reenter to the room. The atmosphere was a little strained and then a certain person decided to say something to fade the tension.

“I hope that Yang wants everything that my sister refused!” Mia said.

Silver’s eyes began to shine and Summer just sighed, the two knew what Mia was referring to. The rest of the girls stared at the black-haired girl, trying to understand the meaning of her words. Mia spoke again in a matter of seconds.

“I’m talking about extra functions!!! A shotgun function, a flying punch, a grapple hook function, a hide knife, what more?”

“Y-you can do that?” Ruby ask. Being a weapons maniac and having someone who can build whatever you want on your side was a dream come true. Mia just nodded and then Ruby hugged her while she was saying, “Where have you been all my life?!”

For some reason Mia felt a shiver run down her back and she quickly found out why. Mia turned to see Blake, Summer, and Silver had moved away from a certain white-haired girl which had begun to release a murderous aura at the moment in which Ruby hugged Mia. If looks could kill, then Weiss would definitely be Mia’s killer. The black-haired girl had felt the urge to say something in her defense, or at least ask Ruby to release her, but, before she could say anything, a powerful scream surprised them.

In a blink of eye Ruby went from hugging Mia to embracing Weiss. The two hugged each other as much they could because the screams were scaring them. Summer, Silver, and Mia had been impacted by a moment, but it wasn’t the first time that they heard those kinds of screams, and Blake… she was trying to open the door to enter the room. But, for her bad luck, the door was locked. If her gun had not been in the room it was certain that she would have used it to knock down the door. She resorted to punching and kicking the door, but the wound in her stomach began to hurt and the pain made her fall to the floor.

Mia quickly ran to her side to help her sit up and verified that the wound had not opened, but stopped when she saw how Blake was looking at her with anger.

“What is your sister doing!?” she cried.

“I think that we should have said this before.” Summer said. “Raven can’t anaesthetise Yang.”

There was a moment of silence before…

“WHAT!?”

“Before someone claim otherwise, let me tell you this, Raven wasn’t anesthetized either. The reason is simple. You need to know that nerves are being connected properly and it is impossible to know that with an unconscious person." She sighed, remembering the feel of hearing someone important to her shout in pain. “I know it's hard, but please resist.”

Two hours passed.

They had to be seated while listening Yang’s cries for two hours. Summer was supported by the wall with the arms crossed, Silver was sitting next to her sister and she had covered her ears hoping to reduce the noise but it did not work, and Ruby was hugging Weiss. She had her eyes closed and was becoming more upset whenever she heard a cry. Ruby knew that Yang was strong but there were always a limit for everything. Weiss did not stop wondering if there was a way or method that the connection of nerves could be less painful, but she didn’t have any ideas. Blake was sitting in front of the door, waiting for it to be opened and the screams cease. She wanted to be able to see her partner and this seemed to be taking forever. She couldn’t prevent her body from trembling with each cry. Finally, Mia was sitting on the right side of Blake. She didn’t do or say anything, she only remained seated beside Blake in sign of support.

Finally, they heard a cry which was much stronger than previous ones and then... nothing. _"It looks like the nerve connection is finished."_ Summer said to herself, but everyone was able to hear it. Now they only needed to wait for Raven to open the door. It didn’t more than a half of minute for that to happen but, for Ruby and others, that short span of time had felt too long.

Yang was sitting on the bed and she was panting as she held her right arm. He left hand rested on the point where the arm turned into metal to be more specific. Raven explained that Yang would have to endure a few pangs and several spasms due to the re-connection of the nerves, but this pain shouldn’t last more than an hour. Although, Raven recommended that nobody touched Yang’s new arm during that time since it could increase the pain.

Team RWBY sighed in relief as soon as they saw Yang give them a smile. The room was silent for a while until…

“Well, I already told to Ruby how many things I can do but, whenever you want, I can make you more than **arm** ed.” Mia said, turning to look at her team. Summer and Silver sighed and Raven crossed her arms. “This… wasn't the right time to say that, right?”

Team SSMR just nodded. For a moment everything was in silence and then someone began to laugh, it was Yang.

“Actually, that was a good one.” Yang said while she petted Mia’s hair. “I can teach you how to make more kinds of puns, you just ask.”

Mia didn’t say anything and she just sniffed. She looked at her sister, Mia’s eyes were tearing. Raven already know what Mia wanted and Summer looked to her own sister and she knew that Silver want the same as Mia.

Quality time with their mothers.

Well, what kind of big sister would deny such a tender desire to her younger sister?

“Now that I remember.” Summer began to speak. “We promised that we would respond to all your questions. So Silver and I will be here with Ruby and Weiss while Raven and Mia will talk with Blake and Yang elsewhere.”

“And before you ask.” Raven continued. “The fresh air will make the pain that Yang is feeling decrease a little, so see you later.”

Before anyone could say anything, Raven and Mia had already taken to Yang and Blake out of the room. Summer and Silver sat on Blake’s bed and invited Ruby and Weiss to sit in the opposite bed to speak face to face. They did it because they didn’t have many options but it was a bit… disturbing. Summer was literally Ruby with long hair and Silver was Weiss with short hair. Of course there were the differences in their hair color but, leaving that aside, Ruby and Weiss actually felt uncomfortable to see the resemblance that Summer and Silver had with them.

“Any questions?” Silver asked.

Ruby didn’t have any questions, at least none for Summer and Silver. At that moment she was preferring to talk with Mia about weapons, the constructions of those weapons, and, of course, the extra functions that Mia could put in Yang’s arm. But, as always, Weiss had the opposite thought.

“Let´s began with the surname.” She said. “You two know ours full names but we don’t know yours.”

“That’s an easy one, it’s Rose-Sc….”

Quickly, Summer laid her hands around her younger sister’s mouth. One of Silver’s bad points, or good one, was that sometimes she was extremely honest. Especially when there are questions about her family.

“It’s Rosch.” The silver-eyed girl said. “Our surname is Rosch, right Silver?”

Silver nodded and then Summer released her. Weiss found that act really weird because for a moment she thought that she heard Silver say “Rose,” but that was Ruby’s surname. So why did Silver would say that? Ruby only thought that “Rose” and “Rosch” sound similar. The next question was about the girl’s age and Summer said that she have fifteen, Silver fourteenth, and Raven and Mia sixteen. The next question was about of what kingdom the girls were from and the answer was that Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven were born in Vale but, for some reason, they moved to Atlas when they had 7, 6 and 8 respectively.

“I have a question.” Ruby said while she raised her right arm like she was in the school. “If you four moved to Atlas at the same time, and by the way that you four treat each other, are you four family?”

“Yes.” Summer said. “Raven and Mia are our cousins.”

“Our mum and Raven and Mia mom are sisters… half-sisters actually, but it’s the same.”

“Like Yang and me.”

The Rose-Schnee sisters looks each other and they answered with a “Y-yes.” What Silver said didn’t was a bad thing, there were a lot of half-sisters in the world, but Ruby’s comment was the thing that made the girls felt a little nervous. Then Weiss began to talk.

“Talking about your parents, do they know that you two are here? Atlas and Vale are very apart.”

Silver bit her lip as she put the hood of her jacket on her head and then she hugged Summer. Silver had never liked to talk about, or remember, about the status of her moms. The fact that her moms, the younger versions of her moms were in front of her didn’t help either. She really wanted to tell them the truth and hug Ruby and Weiss, saying how much she had missed them, but she **_couldn’t_**. Summer laid her left arm on her sister’s shoulders. She knew what Silver was feeling at that moment because she was feeling the same. Maybe her feelings were stronger than Silver’s but, as the big sister, she must keep her cool. Then Summer answered the question.

“They died six years ago. Our auntie and Grunkle took care of us, and yes, they know that we are here.”

“I… em… sorry for that.” Weiss said. She felt so bad for asking that question and making Summer and Silver talk about something so painful.

For her part, Ruby stood up from the bed and hugged Summer and Silver. She knew the pain of losing one of your parents, but losing both had to be horrible. Ruby heard how Summer just sniffed, but Silver was the one who began to cry. If Ruby knew who Summer and Silver really were then she would have gotten sentimental to, but she didn’t know and maybe never will.

“I’m sorry for asking that question.” Weiss said while she petted Summer head. “I made you two remember something bad.”

“It’s fine.” Summer answered while she “escaped” from Ruby’s hug. It’s not that Summer didn’t like it, but she needed to talk to Weiss in a more “normal” form. “We’re the one who need to apologize. You have a lot of questions, but we can’t answer all of them.”

“Well come to think of it, there are situations when someone can’t talk about her mission”

Of course there was a small possibility that Summer was lying about everything and that Team RWBY was actually kidnap for some bad reason, but Weiss didn’t care about that possibility. She believed in the girls and if there was a reason of “why” Summer can’t say the details of Team SSMR’s mission, then who was she to doubt that.

“So an aunt and a Grunkle took care of you two?” Weiss thought that maybe talking about them will make Silver feel better, because she was the one who was crying. She felt a little weird for said the word “Grunkle” instead of “Great-uncle.”

“Yes, our Grunkle is the uncle of Raven and Mia’s mom. So he isn’t actually our true Great-uncle, but we don’t care about blood. On the other hand, auntie is mom’s big sister, right Silver?”

Summer turn to see her sister. She had stopped crying but she was still hugging Ruby. Silver sniffed while she nodded.

“Grunkle taught Summer how to use her weapon and auntie taught me how to use mine. They’re nice to us, and I mean the four of us, but, when they are together, it’s like trying to mix oil and water. As I have been told, they had acting like that even before our moms got together.”

Wait a minute, did Silver said mom **s**? Two women?

Come to think of it, Silver said _mum_ when she talk about her family-relationship with Raven and Mia, and Summer had use the word _mom_ when she talk about her auntie.

Weiss and Ruby looked at each other, their thoughts were the same… Two women had gotten married.

When she was a kid, Ruby saw a few couples of Men/Men and Women/Women in Patch and she had never cared about that. If there are love then what was the problem? Weiss was a little more shocked because she always found that kind of relationship a little strange and weird. So she just could only say “O-okay.” Everything was silent for a moment before Silver said. “Come to think of it, Mum and Mom didn’t get along very well when they met.” She had just remembered that thanks to the talk about her Grunkle and Auntie.

“That’s right.” Summer said. “I remember that mum say that the day that she meet mom, she thought that she had made an enemy.”

“Then they ended up as partners and mum become the team leader. Mom always had the opposite ideas as her, but then mom began to open her heart and they end up as the best team-up ever.”

“That sound like a cute love story.” Ruby said. Of course, the embrace with Silver continued and the reddish-white-haired girl didn’t show any signal of wishing to stop it. “It’s like everyone said, from hate to love there’s only one step.”

“So when did your parents realize their feelings?” Weiss asked, the curiosity in her was strong.

“To be honest, if is wasn’t for our aunt, Raven and Mia’s mom, they would have never realized it.” Summer answered. “I mean they know that they worry about each other in a way that is different than “normal.” Mom always thought that mum was the funniest person that she knew and mum always had the feeling of “I wanna stay with her forever” when she was with mom. But, the two were very slow in the subject of love.”

“As Ruby said, that sound like a cute love story.”

“Weiss, don’t you think that Summer and Silver’s parent’s story sounds like ours? I mean, I thought that you had become my enemy when I met you, then we end up as partners, I become Team RWBY’s leader, and you were very unhappy about it.”

“Do you really think that I didn’t think about it? But there’s a lot of story like ours and, in most of those cases, that pair ends up together.”

“Oh, Weiss.” Ruby began to said in a joking tone. “Are you saying that you wanna marry me?”

“What!?” Yes, her face was red “Of course not! I like boys.”

“Come on, it was just a joke.”

Summer and Silver looked at each other and they only could only think, “They haven’t changed at all.” For them it was like reliving the good old times. If only Ruby and Weiss knew that Ruby’s joke would happen, but then the next shout interrupted the family moment, in Summer and Silver case, and the discussion moment in Ruby and Weiss case. It was Mia’s voice.

“Summer, Silver, we have a problem, Code:FR, Rang:2-B!!!”

Thanks to that code the Rose-Schnee sisters knew that something really bad had happened, and Raven was in the middle of it.

**Meanwhile, Yang/Blake and Raven/Mia side (Before Mia’s scream)**

The balcony was the place which the Xiao Long-Belladonna twins decide to use. Now the group of four were sitting on the floor and Yang was feeling a little disturbed because she felt that she was seeing herself in a mirror due to Mia. Blake felt the same when she looked at Raven. The resemblance of those girls to them was really amazing.

“Any questions?” Raven asked.

Well, thanks to Weiss, Blake already know that the important questions would end up with the answer “Classified,” so she wasn’t going to ask those questions. Yang had questions too, but they didn’t relate to the girls’ identity or mission.

“How long until I’m going to be able to use…” She pointed at her new arm. “This in a normal way?”

“In my case, two months were more than enough. But, with my help, one month or less will be enough. I’m not gonna lie, the rehabilitation is hard.”

According to Raven, Yang’s mind will remember how to move and use the right arm, but her body wasn’t going to do the same. Something so simple like make a fist or grabbing something was painful and hard. At some moments, Yang got frustrated for not being able to do what she wanted to do. If Yang was ready and able to get past the pain, then Raven will willing to begin the rehabilitation the next day at the first hour of the morning. Yang nodded she didn’t care about the pain, she really wanted to be able to use the prosthetic.

“Then prepare yourself for tomorrow.” Raven said with a smile, she was happy to see that her mom’s determination hadn’t changed at all. “Any other questions?”

“You two’s surname.” Blake said. “Your know our full names, so I want to know yours.”

“It’s Xiaobon.” Mia answered. “We are the Xiaobon twins.”

Raven looks at Mia, Xiaobon? Seriously?! Mia wasn’t able to think of something better and Yang thought that the girls’ surname was a little strange, but there were a lot of strange surnames in the world. On the other hand, Blake was shocked. For being twins Raven and Mia didn’t look alike, and if Raven have faunus ears then that means…

“So you two are…”

“Half-faunus? Yes.” Raven began to point her ears “I got the ears and Mia got the ability to see in the dark. Our mama is a faunus and our dad is a human, by the way.”

Okay, a faunus/human couple was possible but, in the currents times, that was something very rare to see. Blake knew that a big part of the faunus didn’t see the faunus who were born from a human/faunus relationship as real faunus. She was more that sure that Raven had been bullied thanks to her cat ears. The thought of the fact that Raven and Mia being bullied by humans and faunus make her feel worried and angry at the same time, but she didn’t know why.

“Cool.” Yang said. “I have never see half-faunus before in my whole life… or maybe I did, but I didn’t know that they were one. For being twins you two don’t look alike, by the way.”

“We grow up in differents eggs, but everyone enjoys calling us twins.” Raven answer “As far as I know “Dad” was the one who started it”

Okay, the way in which Raven said “Dad” was a little strange.

“You haven’t had problems with… you know the ears.” Blake said to Raven, unless nobody know about the “half-faunus” part, Mia could pass as a normal human. But, Blake knew what some people do or say to someone who is a faunus.

“No, at all. When I was a kid dad use to beat the people who said something bad about Mama, and I and now I’m the one who beats them.”

“It was funny to see it.” Mia said. “With just one punch, Dad was able to leave someone unconscious, she was pretty strong.”

Wait a minute, Mia use **_she_** for talk about her “Dad”.

“Dad is a woman. Sometimes we call her mom, but she likes to call herself “Dad” and we eventually ended up doing it too.” Mia said before Blake and Yang ask about it.

A couple of two women… Well, Yang respected the sexual preference of the others because if there is love she didn’t see any problem with it, and Blake… Blake was a fan of the “Ninjas of Love” books, so she can’t said any negative about homosexual couples either. But that information made it a little difficult to think about how Raven and Mia were born. They were twins, there were no doubt about it, but… Having two women as parents. Does that mean that they were adopted?:

“So…left someone unconscious with one punch.” Yang said. “That sounds really awesome, your mom… I mean Dad, must be someone very powerful.”

“She _was_ a strong women.” Raven clarified and she felt how Mia put her head in her shoulder. Raven sighed and began to look at the sky. “Our parents died six years ago.”

That had been very unexpected. Yang felt the necessity to hug Raven and Mia as she knew very well the feeling of losing someone, but the pain in her right side stopped her. Blake didn’t know what to do, she didn’t have clear memories about her own parents so she didn’t know if she should say something. Then Raven began to look at them again. The girl’s red eyes reflected sadness and pain but, at the same time, there was happiness in them.

“It’s sad, but we always remember our parents with joy. Knowing them… they wouldn’t want us to be sad when we thought about them.”

“Our moms were the best.” Mia said “They were like….Super-moms, you know? Dad always played with us and she made very good jokes. On the other hand, Mama was a little opposite. Instead of noise, she used to prefer the silence and sometime she was a little… grumpy, but she always read us a book before bed. Of course, they were a pair of awesome and strong huntresses. Because of that, we never feel sad when we remember them.”

“They could be proud of you two.” Yang said. “If someday I have kids then I would love if they referred to me as “Super-mom.” What about you Blake?”

“What’s with that question….”

“Oh come on, you had never thought about having kids?”

“No… but if that ends up happening then… I think that I’ll be the type of mom that makes her kids feel loved and, without words, let them know that they’re not alone in this world.”

“Awww, that’s so sweet. If I could do it right now then I would hug you.”

The twins sighed, if only Yang and Blake knew…

Raven and Mia looked to the ground outside when they heard grimms noises and in fact there were grimm, four Ursas to be specific.

“Is looks like they want to have a party.” Mia said in a sarcastic manner. “I’m going to call Summer.”

“Wait.” Raven said. She knew that Summer was still weak for the use her eyes’ power yesterday and Raven didn’t want her partner to pass out just to stop four grimm. “I’ll take care of them, you stay here with Blake and Yang”

“Sis, are you sure?”

Raven nodded and then she jumped. Blake and Yang quickly ran to Mia’s side to see Raven land on one of the Ursa’s head. She then killed it with a pair of tiny black swords and the other Ursas began to attack Raven. She started blocking and dodging the claws of the grimms and she stopped the right leg of one of the ursa and immediately killed it. “Raven behind you!!!” Mia cried out but Raven already knew that there was an enemy behind her so she prevented the attack with a somersault.

“That’s all what you two can do.” She said with a smile. Everything was too easy, but then the smile in her face disappeared.

Floating in the air, slowly falling to the floor, were a few strands of blonde hair, _her_ hair.

When Mia saw that she only could say, “Shit.” Then she pulled Yang and Blake away from the edge of the balcony. Mia knew what would happen next, and it wasn’t a cute thing to see. Raven was unmoving while she watched the strands of hair touching the floor.

“You…” Raven said. She was squeezing her fists and the Ursas began to move away from her when they  felt a sudden increase in temperature. But there was no turning back for them, Raven eyes were brimming with anger. “SON OF A BITCH!!!!”

A huge pillar of fire came out of the girl’s body and Mia sighed, saying to herself, “I knew it.” Yang and Blake were more shocked. They knew that those flames were a part of Raven’s semblance, but… what kind of semblance did she have?! The pillar disappeared but Raven’s body was still covered with flames. They were coming out of her arms, legs, face, from all her body.

In the blink of an eye she tackled the Grimm who had messed with her hair but she don't use her swords. She began to beat the Grimm, one fist after another, with a flurry of punches which seemed to have no end. Blake began to feel a kind of deja vú, the reaction that Raven had after the small bit of her hair was cut was identical to Yang’s reaction the day that they become partners. Yang felt more that she identified with Raven since she also hated when someone messed with her hair. In fact she felt that Raven was her exact reflection when she was angry and finally, Mia…

“Summer, Silver, we have a problem, Code:FR, Rang:2-B!!!”

Quickly, Summer opened the room window and she saw how her partner’s body was on fire while she was beating a pair of Grimm.

“Is her body on fire?!” Ruby cried. Just for curiosity she went to the window to see what was going on.

“She looks really… angry.” Weiss said. She wasn’t able to think in a better word to describe Raven’s status at that moment.

“Sis...”

“Mia!!!” Summer cried “Stop her, I’m on the way.”

After hearing that Mia was going to jump but Blake stopped her. In part, Blake stopped Mia because she was worry about Mia jumping from the balcony, but she also was wondering what exactly was going on. Mia just let out a little nervous laugh. Her right eye change from purple to yellow before she jumped  and shouted.

_“My sis really hates when someone messes with her hair.”_

The next thing that Yang and Blake saw was how Mia’s shadow turn into ribbons and with them the black-haired girl tied her sister’s arms together to her torso. The fire was still coming out of Raven’s body though.

“Aren’t the semblances those two have kinda odd?” Blake said.

“Raven’s semblances is strange and Mia semblance is funny. Between those two, I pick Mia’s Shadow control.”

Blake and Yang turned to see the owner of that voice. It was Silver, but… When did she get there? Before any questions could be asked, Silver grabbed Blake’s right hand and Yang’s left one. She smiled while she said, “Let’s go down there.”

**Meanwhile, with the Xiao Long-Belladonna twins.**

“Mia, what the hell are you doing?!” Raven was fighting against Mia’s shadow and trying to free herself. “Let me go!!! That freaking Grimm cut my hair, you get it, MY HAIR!”

“I know. Sorry, but I can’t release you.”

“That’s enough Raven.” Summer said. “Let the rest to me.”

Ruby and Weiss had just arrived to where Raven and Mia were and, in the blink of an eye, Silver, Blake, and Yang was there too. The last two people were a little disorientated as, just a second ago, they were in the balcony and then Silver’s super-speed made them end up on grounds below. Summer saw Team RWBY… well she was looking only at Ruby because she was the person who must see what happened next.

Summer eyes began to shine, she turn to look at the grimm and they began to show fear. The words “Leave this place _now_ ” were more than enough to make the Ursas ran away from Summer.

“Gathering Team RWBY isn’t our only mission. I also have to teach Ruby Rose how to use the power of her silver eyes and…” She turned to look Weiss. “I also have to teach you how to use your semblance.”

If something was made pretty clear in that moment, and that was that Ruby’s eyes had a very extraordinary power and that Summer was able to use that power too, but there were another thing.

Another question that maybe wasn't going to have an answer.

How many secrets was Team SSMR hiding?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well the video in the record that Raven give to Qrow is the next and let me say the significance in the “Code” that Mia use in this chapter, we already saw how Raven get when someone mess with her hair so her sister and cousins make differents codes (just three) when that happen. 
> 
> FR means Furious Raven.  
> Rang: 1 (Someone outside of the family touch her hair or ears)  
> Rang: 2 (A person cut some strands of hair)  
> Rang: 2-B (A Grimm cut some strands of hair)
> 
> Well as always I hope everyone had enjoy it, leave a kudo or comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	10. A message from the future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait but here is the chapter

“Are you telling me that you and Ozpin met two girls who came from the future? And those girls are your great-nieces who also claimed your nieces team will die in fourteen years?”

“James… You understand english, right?”

As Qrow already had expected, Ironwood didn’t believe in a single word of the “Girls from the future” subject. Glynda was more focused in treating Ozpin’s wounds, but she had her doubts too. The fact that Qrow and Ozpin arrived at the “hospital” at the two o’clock in the morning and the first thing that they said was, “We met people from the future” didn’t help either. Now the four were in one of the many empty rooms trying to figure out what to do, while Qrow was trying to convince his friends to play the record that Raven gave him.

“Listen. I didn’t believe Summer and Raven either, but this sounds really serious. Let’s just watch the video on this record.” Qrow said. the reason of “Why” he wanted to see the video so badly was answered by, “How do I look in the future?”

“And what if those girls were lying?”

“James, let’s just watch the video and figure that out later.” Ozpin said.

Ironwood was going to oppose to the idea no matter how much confidence he had in Ozpin. There were occasions where he needed to doubt him, but he couldn’t say “No” because Glynda had said “I agree with the headmaster.” James simply couldn’t refuse agreeing with whatever the blonde said.

Qrow pushed the red button on the record.

A hologram was projected out of the drive and the first thing they saw were the two girls. “Yang with black hair and Ice queen lil’ sis!?” Were Qrow’s thoughts when he saw the girls. Then he remembered that Summer had said that she was the older kid of the Rose-Schnee family, so the most obvious thought was that the reddish-white hair girl was Summer little sister. That would make the black-haired girl Raven’s sister.

 _“So, Ruby and Yang ended up having two kids each…”_ The shock of knowing that he was, or will be, (it was hard to think about it according to the current situation) the great-uncle of four kids was pretty strong. Then the girls in the hologram began to speak.

_“Do you think that they can see us?” Silver asked._

_“Who knows…” Mia said while she looked at the recorder. “Past-self of Grunkle Qrow, can you see us?”_

_Grunkle!?_ Well, that short version of “Great-uncle” was probably Future-Yang’s idea but… he felt so old hearing how he passed from “Uncle Qrow” to “Grunkle Qrow.” Summer and Raven showed themselves on the screen and, thanks to them, Ozpin’s team knew that the names of the mysterious girls were Silver and Mia.

_“Mia, you made the recorder work, good job.” Raven said while she was petting her sister head “Let’s go, we can’t stay here.”_

_“Eh!?” both Silver and Mia exclaimed._

_“This is a messenge for Grunkle, Ozpin, Glynda, and James’ past-selves, we can’t stay here. Let’s wait outside.” Summer said, but her sister and cousin didn’t want to leave the room. “Stop acting like kids!!”_

_“I’m gonna tell auntie about this!!!”_

“I don’t want to sound rude but, if what Qrow said is true, team RWBY should be dead at this point.” Glynda said. She had never doubted Ozpin’s words and she was certainly shocked by what she was seeing but asking questions right now wouldn’t help anything. She looked at James, he hasn’t said a single word since the video started and, knowing him, that was strange.

“Even if they died… the girls still had someone to call aunt.” Ozpin said and he turn to look at Qrow. He looked very disappointed about that comment, and the reason for that was too obvious.

The fact that Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee were like water and oil wasn’t a secret.

_“What is happening here?” A new voice sounded in the video. “Oh! Mia got the recorder to work.”_

In fact, the person who appeared in the video was Winter Schnee. She did not look too different than how she looked now, just more distinguished. Her hair was shorter, though it still covered the right side of his face. She had aged very well, but there were a very noticeable difference; her personality. The Winter everyone knew was very reserved, sometimes cold, and didn’t talk about her behaviour when Qrow was close. The Winter that they were seeing in that video was treating  Silver and Mia with great affection, it was an attitude who even Ironwood hadn’t seen before.

But it was sad to think that at that point Weiss, and possibly their parents, were dead and that these girls were the only family that she had.  Raven and Mia weren’t her blood nieces, but it was seemed that Winter didn’t care about that detail. If Weiss Schnee’s weakness was Zwei, than Winter Schnee’s weakness were her nieces.

Then a new person showed himself on the video.

_“Silver, Mia, listen to your sisters and aunt and wait for us outside.”_

It was Qrow. Well, Qrow’s futureself. Part of his hair had turned gray and he had a bit of beard in his chin. There were also some wrinkles on his face but, despite that, future Qrow did not look very different from the current Qrow. In fact, he thought that he looked old, but in the good way.

_“But Grunkle, that’s not fair” Mia said “Sis and Summer gonna be able to see your and Ozpin’s past-selfs! Silver and I atleast want them to see us!”_

So, the talk that Qrow and Ozpin had with Raven and Summer was planned since the very beginning.

_Future Qrow sighed and he made sure his two great-nieces were captured by the camera of the recorder. Then he informed them that it was impossible to delete what was recorded. Since they were seen earlier, when the recorder started working, Mia and Silver was already in the video and they accidentally achieved their goal. The two girls were in silence for a couple of seconds until they exclaimed “That’s right!!!” Without more complaints Mia and Silver agreed to leave and go with their sisters._

Ozpin and the others saw something pretty strange when Summer, Silver, Mia and Raven disappeared off the screen and that was the next.

Qrow and Winter were ALONE, in the same room, and they didn’t begin to fight? Furthermore, they were **talking** about the order of how they were going to give information to the past. Normally they _never_ talk with each other and, when they did, it was only to say negative things to each other.

Just when the hell did this sudden “become family” thing happen!?

“The future look scary…” Qrow said to himself. He really couldn’t  believe what he was seeing. He was getting along with Winter Schnee… How much he was going to change in the future?

But suddenly the attention of everyone turned to other people as Ozpin, Glynda, and James’ future-selves appeared on the screen.

For Oum!!! James looked pretty bad.

His hair was totally white and his wrinkles make he look pretty old. At that point he was maybe in his fifties or sixties, but he looked much older than that. What had happen to him? On the other hand, Ozpin and Glynda…

“You two don’t age!?” Qrow and James cried. Ironwood was now more than convinced that everything Qrow had said was truth.

“Furthermore, why did I look so old!?” James was half-sad, half-happy. Sad because how bad he had aged and because he didn’t see a wedding ring on future Glynda’s hand. That meant that in the end he wasn’t able to marry her. But the happiness came from the fact that it meant that Glynda didn't marry anyone else.

Ozpin and Glynda could only look at their futureselves while they saying “Interesting…” It was like they hadn’t aged at all. They only difference was that for some reason future Ozpin had a ponytail and future Glynda’s hair was long. Now that future Ozpin’s team, plus Winter, were together… it was time to hear information about the future.

_“Well, I’m going first” Future Winter said._

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Qrow said but suddenly everyone told him to be quiet and to continue listening.

What future Winter began to say, was that Team RWBY will be “missing” for a whole month and during that time Ironwood can’t return to Atlas. The reason was that everyone had seen the army which was under James’ control attacking innocent people. Because of that, in the old timeline, Ironwood ended up in prison because the Atlas army took his actions as a sign of rebellion. Maybe spending years in prison could explain why future James looked so bad.

_“And before I continue. General Ironwood, I need to ask you a favor.”_

Having Winter asking for a favor was strange but James was wondering what she wanted. Meanwhile, Qrow… he just was wishing that Winter shut up soon.

_“I need you to call my past-self and tell her that Weiss is fine. Please try to convince both my father and I to not search for her. Our plan requires that no one knows the location of team RWBY. I’ll leave that in your hands.”_

“Well, she said that the plan that they made says that Ruby and the others need to be missing for a whole month.” Glynda said but couldn’t stop wondering why a month. Maybe the other were thinking the same.

_“Right now everyone is probably wondering “why” Team RWBY needs to be missing for a whole month.” Future Winter said. It was looked like that part was really important. “The answer is easy. Team SSMR will be training Team RWBY during that month. I’m sure that everyone wants to know the details of the girls plan and mission, I would tell you but, due time issues, I can’t. Listen carefully, Summer and the others have a limit time to fulfill their mission. A limiting date to be more exact.”_

December 22nd. Team SSMR’s mission must end before that day, and the current date was November 1st.

In other words, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang will be missing during the whole month of November and, after that, Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven will end their mission in less than twenty-two days. Was there were a reason for the existence of a limit time?

From what future Winter was saying, the “Time-machine” that they used to send the girls to the past worked with dust. Also, it was looked like the original plan was send the girls to the day before the start of the Vital Tournament but, for a lot of difference reasons, they were only able to send them to the point when the battle of Beacon was almost finished. Returning to the machine issues, Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven were able to keep themselves in the past due the dust that the time-machine used. To be more specific, right now the girls were covered with an invisible blanket of dust that will end up disappearing on December 22nd, making them return to the future.

The technology of the future sounded really awesome, but no one in the room was able to say anything about it because now they saw future Ozpin was starting to speak.

_“Now it’s my turn.” He said. “I’m sure that Qrow and my past self already asked this, but James and Glynda know about this too.  Why has nobody ever wondered what happen to the hermit who give the magic power to the four maidens?”_

Glynda looked at James, James looked at Glynda, and they both ended up looking at Ozpin and Qrow. Of course nobody knew the answer, what had happened to the hermit was a total mystery. But Summer had said that Exitium, Salem, the maidens, and the silver-eyed people were related to each other. Ozpin and Qrow already knew about the silver-eyed people powers, but they didn’t know about the relationship with Exitium, Salem, and the maidens.

_“Get ready, because right now, you four are going to listen the full version of the Four Maidens story.”_

As the maiden's promised, they visited the hermit once time at year. In the beginning, the four went together to see him but, little by little, on the date in which the hermit knew that the girls would go to his house, there began to be times when only two or three would come. There was even one occasion where only was one of them, showed up. The hermit quickly noticed that the girls were fulfilling the second promise that they had made to him, using the powers to help people. Each maiden had begun her own journey to help people with their respective powers and the hermit was happy to know that, so he didn't care that the four maidens wouldn’t visit him all together. Knowing that the powers that he had provided were being used for the good was more than enough for him.

But nobody knew that those days of peace and harmony were coming to an end.

A war had started, and there were people who wanted to use the maidens powers to hurt others.

The hermit couldn’t believe it. He tried to find a way to end the war before things get worse. He and the maidens would never accept hurting others with their powers and that they would also seek a way to stop the war... but that didn’t happen. The maidens never found a way to stop the war, so they effectively refused to participate because they didn't want the powers that were granted to them to be used for evil. So they simply left, and the war continued. That was where the hermit began to lose the faith in humanity, and without realizing it, he was gradually losing his own humanity.

The years passed and the war continued. It was then that the hermit had began to become aware something. If humankind didn’t understand each other then, in the future, there will be more wars. So he decided that he would create a world where everyone could understand each other, a world where peace would come and stay forever. But, for that objective, the current race of mankind had to disappear.

To demonstrate his power, the hermit destroyed a part of the Moon. When he showed himself to the people he arose as Exitium, the savior of the humanity. But to accomplish his mission the current humanity would have to disappear. The maidens couldn’t believe that the friendly hermit who they had known had been transformed into someone with a plan so evil. Exitium asked them for their collaboration, but the maidens refused. They still had faith in humanity, so they were ready to protect it. Even if that meant fighting against a friend. Feeling betrayed, Exitium decided that the first people that he would eliminate would be the maidens.

The power difference was very evident. The maidens knew that they didn’t have a single chance of beating the hermit. So Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter came to the conclusion that to stop their enemy, they would have to seal it. That meant sacrificing their own lives… but they didn’t care about that.

They managed to surround Exitium and, using an unimaginable concentration of energy, they managed to seal him. The maidens had known many people during their respectable travels, but they never knew that the last person who each one dedicated her final thoughts to would inherit their powers. Before the seal was completed, the hermit was able to divide his own soul resulting in the creation of another "he." Since the energy was little, and that other half of “he” had to escape before being detected by the maidens, the "clone" took the form of a woman who named herself "Salem." The process of sealing that the maidens used resulted in the separation of Remnant into four different kingdoms.

_“The next part says that, the day that Salem dies, her soul and Exitium soul will become one again. That process will take five days. The first four days are for the hatred and resentment that Exitium had for the Maidens and the fifth day is his way to say “Thanks” to his other “he.” After that five days pass… he will wake up.”_

The room was in total silence. Nobody knew what to say, better said, they didn’t know how it was even possible that none of them had discovered that information until that moment. Even Ozpin didn’t know anything about that part of the story. They knew Salem’s story, a woman who was accused of witchcraft in the four kingdoms and almost got burned at the stake for that. She disappeared without leaving a trail, but they didn’t know her origin story. Suddenly, the silence was broken. Someone had begun laughing, and that person was none other than future Ozpin. It was like he had lost his mind. He kept laughing and laughing but something in his laugh sounded… sad, and guilty, and then he stopped.

_“It’s funny when you think about it. When we thought that we had won, an unexpected villain made his appearance and, before we realized it…” He sighed. It was a very long sigh. “The destiny of humanity, and the task of defeating the enemy, was in the hands of a nine-year-old little girl.”_

Of course he was talking about Ruby and Weiss’ daughter, Summer. After all, she inherited the silver eyes. With the proper training, it was more than certain that Summer could become a powerful huntress, but it wasn’t time to think about it. Future Glynda was the next to speak.

_“If Ruby hadn’t lost her right eye then the story would have been different.” She said. “Ozpin and Qrow already knew the true power of the silver-eyed people, but neither of you knew the relationship of those people to the maidens. The Summer maiden to be more specific.”_

“Can I know why you never said anything about this to me or Ironwood?” Glynda asked.

“Because Qrow is Ruby’s “Uncle” and, to be honest, I never thought that she would be able to awaken that power.” Ozpin answered. He wasn’t saying that Ruby was a weak girl, it just that awakening the silver-eyed power was something very difficult. He didn’t want to know how Summer awakened her eyes’ power.

“Ruby isn’t weak!” Qrow suddenly said.

“Shut up!!! Glynda…I mean future Glynda is talking.”

_“For to understand the relationship, you need to know about the grimm’s origin.”_

The grimm’s origin? That had been a mystery since… well, since ever. There were a few theories, some of them sounded ridiculous but the other sounded pretty realistic. If there was something similar in every theory, it is that the grimm, like the silver-eyed people, had existed _before_ the kingdoms. The kingdoms were created, by accident, during the original maidens time, so they had to be related in some way.

_“The grimm are attracted by negative emotions, they don't have an aura, and they disappear when a hunter kills them.” Future Glynda began to say. “We discovered that the grimm are the souls of people who die with negative emotions; rage, hate, resentment, greed, and other emotions like that.”_

If you think about it, that made sense, a lot sense. If the grimm used to be _people_ then that explains **how** they learned to fight. It was his or her instinct of when they used to be human. If the grimm were just souls infested with negative emotions, then that would explain why they disappeared when someone “killed” them and why they felt attracted to negative emotions. According to future Glynda’s words, the grimm, like the dragon who was frozen in Beacon, were the result of a great mass of souls. In other words, people who died in the same place.

 _“I knew that theory would be the correct one.”_ Ozpin thought. For him, that theory always had a lot of good arguments and the silver-eyed powers was one of those arguments. Future Glynda continued talking.

_“The silver-eyes have to power of “Purify” the grimm. The procedure is simple, according to the level of negatives emotions the grimm end up frozen while his “soul” is purified. When that procedure ends, the grimm becomes powder and the soul is finally able to rest. For example, the purify-procedure of the dragon-grimm will take a whole year but, in an Ursa’s case, the procedure only takes a week or less. The grimm know that. That is the reason of why they feel fear towards a person with silver-eyes who know how to use their powers. But, to try to do it with only one eye is impossible.”_

It was more than obvious that future Glynda was saying that only for her past self and Ironwood, because Ozpin and Qrow already knew that. Then future Glynda began to talk about the relationship between the Summer Maiden and the silver-eyed people.

During one of her travels, the original Summer Maiden ended up in a little town where she met a blind girl. That town was constantly under grimm attack and, even if she wasn’t able to fight, the blind girl had the determination to face the grimm and try to save people. The Summer Maiden was amazed about the girl determination and she decided to help her. The grimm weren’t opponents for the maiden’s power. The girl and the town felt very grateful,  and the Summer Maiden decided to stay in the town for a while. She and the blind girl became great friends. When the day came to leave the town, the maiden still wanted to stay in the town, but she had made a promise of travel around the world and use her powers to help the people. The blind girl was sad, but the maiden thought of a way to help her with her powers. The maiden focused. She focus on her powers, focused on what she want to do, focused on helping her friend. Through this, the Summer maiden was able to transfer a little, a very little, part of her Magic to the girl. The girl regained the sight and her eyes’ color changed from white to silver. She felt extremely grateful to the maiden and this was when their paths separated but, what neither of them knew, was that the girl had won the ability to purify grimms and that ability would pass to her descendants.

“Oz, if you knew that, and you never told me, then… I swear that I’ll punch you in the face.” Qrow said while he took a drink of the alcohol in his flask.

“Me too.” Glynda and James said.

Okay, the three were all entitled to be angry with him. The information about the silver-eyed people and the Summer maiden were important and he had preferred to have hidden that information. Before Ozpin could say something like, “I remind you that I wounded,” in his defense, future James began to talk. Ironwood felt relieved to hear that his voice had not changed at all. He looked like an old manm but at least he didn’t sound like one.

_“As Winter said in the beginning, due to time issues, we can’t give you that many details and Qrow still needs to say something. So my part going to be a little short.” Then he showed them two pictures. One of them was a black crystal which looked like a dust crystal, but there was a problem with it, black dust didn’t exist. The other picture only was showing a small crystal ball. “I guess that everyone remembers that Cinder Fall used a bracelet with a lot of this black crystal?”_

Yes, they remembered it but, how important could that ornament be?

_“Salem creates these crystals. They have two functions, one of them is create a portal which can transport you anywhere. This crystal is the key to accessing to Salem’s “Home.” Something like a hiding place that was created during Exitium’s sealing.”_

That answer the previous question. The second function of the black crystal was something that only Salem can use. Creating artificial grimm which have the ability to steal the maiden’s powers, killing them in the process. Now they have the answer of how Cinder was able to steal half of Amber power’s. The crystal ball only had one function, and that was steal the maiden’s powers, but without killing them. It was more than obvious that Salem didn’t create the crystal ball, but Ozpin and Qrow already knew **_who_** had created that ball.

Raven Branwen.

After all, the time-line said that she had given the maiden’s power to Qrow for hide them in a safe place. There was another thing of the time-line that couldn’t leave Qrow’s mind.

 _Raven Branwen’s sacrifice._ That meant that she died in the future and there should be something in that event which made future Yang decide to name one of her kids “Raven.”

_“For sealing Exitium again.” Future Qrow had began to talk. Both, his face and voice, looked and sounded sad. It wasn’t easy to him talk about it. “Raven fused herself with an unbelievable amount of dust. She almost died in the procedure and then she sacrificed herself in front of my eyes. In front of Yang, Ruby, Weiss, Blake,in front of everyone. It’s frustrating and sad remember that her sacrifice only gave us ten fucking years of peace… her life was worth much more than that. I can’t say how many things Raven hide, that’s something that you, my past self, needs to discover on your own”_

On your own, on your own, how many times he had heard those words!?

What he did need to know!? That his sister died in front of his eyes and he wasn’t able to stop it? That he wasn’t able to **_save_** her? Raven may have done a lot of bad things in her life and he had a very long list of them, but… she was still his sister. Qrow clenched his fist, he wanted to hit his future self so hard while yelling “Why you didn’t save her!?” But, then a noise made him look at the screen, the video color had changed to red with the next message.

**There was only five minutes left.**

_“Fuck!!!” Future Qrow said. “Listen, there’s no much time left so I’m going to be quick about the next three things, so listen carefully. First, don’t let Tai return to Patch. His daughters are going to be missing for a whole month and I’m pretty sure that he will be depressed, so don’t leave him alone. Second, teams RWBY and SSMR will return to Vale after that month and Raven will call you one day before that. Third….”_

_Ozpin, Glynda, and James’ future selves sighed and they decided to leave the room. Winter had the palm of her left hand resting in her eyes. She was breathing, trying to calm herself. It looked like the next part was something very serious for them._

_“I know that Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven **will** change this shit of a future. We are more than sure that their moms will end up getting married in the new time-line. So, when Ruby and Weiss’ wedding comes…” He swallowed saliva, his face have a serious look and then future Qrow yelled. “Don’t you dare to drink a single drop of alcohol!!”_

What the….

_“Believe me, you don’t know what a drunk night can do.” He said while he was looking future Winter._

_“Better than that.” Future Winter cried “Leave the alcohol **now**. I still have nightmares about that fucking morning.”_

_“And you think that I don’t!?”_

_“Shut up!”_

Suddenly the video disappeared, the record had hit its time limit. Well, at least it was good to see that Qrow and Winter would still be the same in the future.

“So, we need to wait a month.” Ozpin was the first one in talk. “James, can you wait a month to return to Atlas?”

“If that prevent me from going to jail, then good for me, and I can stay with Glynda a little more”

“You saw our future selves. What you are thinking never going to happen.”

“Futures can change.”

While Glynda and James were “talking”, Ozpin was watching Qrow. He was too quiet and that wasn’t normal for him.

“…the hell…”

“Qrow, are you fine?” Ozpin ask.

And then…

“WHAT THE HELL DID ME AND THE ICE QUEEN DO IN THE FUTURE!?”

Something was sure in that moment, Qrow Branwen was traumatized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defence, I don’t ship Qrowin but for some reason I couldn’t resist putting that, we have a little time-skip for the next chapter, and maybe the encounter between a little kittie bird with a bird but who know, I hope everyone have enjoyed the chapter, as always leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.  
> Atte. Geo.


	11. One month later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter!!! Time-skip chapter but least be honest there can’t be much changes in just one month, lets begin with this.

It’s been a month since the battle of Beacon.

With the reappearance of Beacon’s headmaster, Ozpin, the students felt that they could see a little ray of hope in the middle of all that dark, but not everything was good. Parts of Vale had been destroyed. People were helping in the reconstruction, but things weren’t easy. Beacon had become a nest of grimm, innocent people and students were wounded, and, the most important thing, Team RWBY had disappeared.

Thanks to Ren and Nora, everyone knew that Weiss’s dad had taken her back to Atlas, but Ruby, Blake, and Yang were missing as well and there weren’t any signs of where they could be. Blake had been missing since the end of the battle, but Ruby and Yang just vanished without a single word.

The only thing that their friends and family could do was wish that they were fine.

.

.

.

“It’s official, I hate Ruby and Yang’s uncle.” Nora said.

She and the rest of the Team JNPR were in Pyrrha’s room and, for some reason, Pyrrha’s wounds were taking a long time to heal, They had been wondering where Ruby, Blake, and Yang could be but, suddenly, Nora said that sentence. Before someone could ask “why” she said that, Nora spoke again.

“His nieces had been missing for a whole month and it’s like he doesn’t even care. I felt sad when I saw Ruby and Yang’s dad, but they uncle really pisses me off!”

“Maybe he is worried but doesn’t want to show it.” Jaune said. “I mean, he looks like the kind of person who doesn't like to show his emotions.”

“Maybe you're right.” Nora said and suddenly she began to look at her leader and friend. “By the way, when you two going to clarify **_that_**?”

Jaune and Pyrrha faces change to red. Of course, Nora was talking about the kiss. Throughout that month, they hadn’t wanted to talk about it. In first place, Jaune didn’t even want to be alone with Pyrrha and, in second place, Pyrrha didn’t to talk about it. But, Nora was insistent that they _needed_ to clarify their respective feelings… and she wanted it so that when Team RWBY came back they would be the first couple of their generation; that sounded cool and sweet to her.

“Nora, this isn’t the time to talk about it!” Pyrrha said.

“That’s true. Right now Ruby and the others are more important than that.” Jaune said.

“Excuses, excuses.”

Ren didn’t say anything. He just listened to how his friends were “talking” and then he decided to go make some tea, because it seemed that the “conversation” was going to take time, a very long time.

**Meanwhile, in Beacon’s ruins.**

“Come on, focus yourself!” Summer cried out.

She, Silver, Ruby, and Weiss were outside of the dorms while Raven, Mia, Blake, and Yang were on the balcony. Each group was doing their respectable training. During that month, Summer had taught Ruby how to use the silver-eyes’ power but, no matter how much Ruby focused herself, she only was only able to make her eyes shine a little. Unlike Summer she also wasn’t able to keep them shining.

“Your eyes are shining try to maintain it.”

“I-I’m trying.” Ruby said. She was sweating and both, her eyes and head, had began to hurt. Ruby wasn’t sure if she going to be able to keep the shine in her eyes.

Silver and Weiss were sitting on the floor, watching and waiting. Silver didn’t inherit the silver eyes but, she knew that without formal training, the eyes’s user can end up with a terrible headache or, in the worst case, fainting.

Weiss was totally focused on Ruby. She know that she was trying her hardest with the training but, at first sight, Ruby training looked difficult. Weiss quickly got up as soon as she saw how her partner had fallen from her knees to floor. Summer rested her right hand on one of Ruby’s shoulders.

“Sorry.” Ruby said while she looked to Summer. “I wasn’t able to hold it.”

“It’s fine.” The girl said. “One month isn’t enough to learn how to use the full power, but at least you now know the basics. Feel free to rest if you want to.”

“Thanks.”

Ruby then went over to where Silver and Weiss were, and that mean that now is was Weiss’s turn. Ruby sat down beside Silver and the first thing that she heard was Weiss’s voice asking if she was fine. Of course she was fine, she had a little headache, but she was fine.

“Maybe if you summon something really cool my headache will go away.” Ruby said with a smile.

Weiss sighed, she was expecting to hear that. Unlike Ruby’s, Weiss’s training had shown good results. She had been able to summon little things like flowers, birds, and a lot of small animals but, in the beginning, Weiss was in disagreement with Summer wanting to teach her how to use her semblance. In the first place, Winter had tried to teach her how to use it without any success and, in second place, what could Summer know about summoning? The summoning semblance was exclusive to the Schnee family, so is was more than impossible that someone outside of the family knew how to use it. But, when the training, began Weiss realize that Summer really knew what she was talking about.

Weiss didn’t ask any questions because, most likely, Summer would end up answering with “Classified”. So she just limited herself to just following Summer’s instructions.

“Okay, I decided that this will be our last training sessions” Summer said and, when she saw the confused face of Weiss, she added “I taught you everything that I know. You already knew the basic techniques and now you’re able to summon things.”

“Make sense to me. Do you want to make this last session special or something?”

“You totally read me. I want you to summon something _big._ ”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Do you remember how do you got that scar on your eye?”

Summer wanted her to summon the knight? Well, she was able to summon one of his arms during the battle of Beacon but… she wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to do it again. Just thinking about it was difficult and trying to do it felt impossible. She was only able to summon little things at the moment. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, Summer was watching her.

“Is fine if you aren’t able to summon it, but at least I want you to try, okay?”

“Okay.” Weiss said while she was holding her weapon. Then a glyph appeared in front of her. “I just need to try it.”

“If this helps you, then try to think of this. I know that you summoned one of the knight’s arm one month ago. I want you to remember that moment, but imagine that the person that you want to save is Ruby instead of Velvet.”

“How is that going to help?”

“Just do it.”

Meanwhile, Silver and Ruby were watching the training. Silver was feeling a little useless because she didn't have something to teach either of them, but there weren’t nothing that she could do about it. After all, Summer had been the one in inherit the silver eyes and the summoning semblance. Ruby was thinking about how she would be able to use her eyes’s powers. Furthermore, it was still hard to think that her eyes had the power to defeat the grimm but, after see Summer make the grimm run away from her with only the shine of her eyes, the only option that she had about it was “believe”.

“Silver, how long did it take Summer to learn to use her eyes’s power?”

“If I remember correctly, a year. She was nine when she awoke that power, and she was ten when she defeated her first grimm with it.”

“And how did she awaken it? Did someone teach her how to do it?”

Silver put on the hood of her sweatshirt. It was what she liked to do whenever she felt sad. Silver began to say that even though she didn’t  have silver eyes like her big sister, she knew how their power could be awakened; training or strong emotions. Ruby was doing the first one, but what made Summer awaken her power had been the second one. Silver specified that those “strong emotions” weren’t simple things like anger or happiness, they had to be emotions which make a radical change in the silver-eyes’s user’s emotional state. Like a situation of life or death, wrath… seeing a loved one die.

Ruby swallow saliva after hearing that, it couldn’t be…

“Did Summer see how your parents…”

“Don’t get the wrong idea.” Silver said. “What made Summer awaken her powers was me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Summer has a big scar on her chest and some small scars on her arms. She got them at the same time that Raven lost her arm. That happened one month after our parents died. Summer and Raven changed after that and they began to train to be able to fight against the grimm. They learned so fast, Mia and I felt useless so we decided to show our sisters that we were strong like them and, without telling anyone, we went to a place plagued by grimm. In the beginning everything was easy, but soon we weren’t able to continue. There were so many of them.”

“And what happened?” Ruby asked. She knew that is was hard for Silver to talk about it, but she really wanted to know what had happened.

“Our sisters came to the rescue, but they didn’t fight. Summer and Raven just wanted to run away from that place with Mia and me and then…”

.

.

.

_“Summer… Summer, please! Open your eyes!!!”_

_An eight-year-old Silver was yelling while she was holding her big sister’s unconscious body. She could hear Mia’s cries next to her but Silver’s eyes were focused on the pool of blood on Summer’s chest._

_“Raven…” Mia said, trying to control her tears. “Wake up, please…”_

_Mia was trying to stop the blood who was came out of her sister right arm, or at least the place when Raven’s arm use to be._

_Everything had happened so fast. They were trying to run away from that place when Silver tripped on something on the floor and Mia tried to help her to stand up. They heard the grimm’s cries behind them. They were tackled by Summer and Raven and… the next thing that they knew was that their sisters were on the floor in a pool of blood. Summer’s chest was totally red and Raven’s right arm was gone._

_“Mia… What do we do?” Silver was desperate. Summer wasn’t waking up and the grimm were nearing them._

_“Like I know!!!” She cried, despair was evident in her voice. Mia was totally focused on stopping Raven’s bleeding._

_The grimm were close, very close. Mia and Silver wouldn’t be able to fight against them and the current state of Summer and Raven just made things worse. Silver hugged Summer and Mia hugged Raven. The two had begun to cry. They felt hopeless, guilty, desperate… they were in the worst situation ever._

_“Please Summer…” Silver sobbed. “Don’t die. Mom and mum died a month ago, I don’t want to lose you too.”_

_“Raven...” Tears were falling from Mia’s face. “Please don’t leave me…”_

_“…li…ke…”_

_Mia and Silver opened their eyes when they heard that and before they realize what was happened. Raven and Summer stood in front of them. The two were breathing hard and blood was still coming out of their bodies. A simple glance showed that Raven was the worst of them. She had lost more blood than Summer but, if one of Summer’s organs, the Heart or the lungs, had been stabbed by the grimm’s claws that would change things._

_“Mia, don’t be stupid.” Raven said. “Like I’m going to leave you alone. We had been together since the beginning and I won’t leave you, no matter what happens.”_

_“Silver…” Summer said, some blood come out of her mouth. “Remember this, there’s no way for me to die and leave you alone, I’m your big sister after all.”_

_Mia and Silver were only able to say “Sis…” Summer and Raven were watching the grimm. Summer felt that she couldn’t breath due to the wound in her chest and Raven could felt how she could faint at any moment. The blood lose had been too much, but they didn’t care about it. They were mad at the grimm, they had tried to hurt Silver and Mia… and that was something unforgivable._

_“Summer’s eyes…” Silver said._

_“Raven’s body….” Mia said._

_“Are/Is shining” the both cry, neither of them knew what was happening._

_“Hurting my little sister is off limits!!!!”_

_After Summer and Raven yelled that sentence, a big silver shine and a huge amout of fire invaded Silver and Mia sight. They had been surrounded by the fire and had to close their eyes due the silver light. They didn’t know what happened until they were able to open their eyes again… they couldn’t believe it._

_The grimm had disappeared. There was powder on the floor and burn marks all over the place where the grimm used to be a second ago and…._

_Summer and Raven had fainted on the floor._

.

.

.

“Only a few seconds after that, Grunkle and Auntie showed up and we returned home. Summer and Raven ended up in coma for a whole week. During that week, Auntie told me about Summer’s silver eyes. We already knew about the link between Raven’s emotions and semblance and, of course, they never blamed us for what happened but… remembering that day just makes me feel guilty.”

Silver could feel how the hood on her head had been removed and, after that, she felt Ruby’s hand petting her head. Ruby didn’t know why, but she really enjoyed doing that. For some reason petting Silver’s head make her felt warm and calm. She also felt that doing it made Silver feel better no matter how bad she was feeling.

“It wasn’t necessary to talk about it.” Ruby said. She was feeling a little guilty because of her curiosity making Silver talk about that event.

“It doesn’t matter.” She said while she was watching Ruby. “You would of ended up asking about how Raven lost her arm. So, better now than never. Also, Mia told me that she talked about it with Yang and Blake the other day.”

“I see.” Ruby said while she looked towards the balcony. “Speaking of them, I wonder how they’re doing.”

**On the balcony**

Blake didn’t know who was following who. Was Yang following Mia’s moves? Or was Mia following Yang’s? It was somewhat difficult to say.

As Raven said, Yang’s rehabilitation was hard. Her arm didn’t do what her brain said. Things like throwing a punch or grabbing a glass were difficult. Even channeling Yang’s aura through the arm was hard but, with Raven’s instructions, the blonde quickly learned how to use her new arm. Of course, there were some days when Raven and Yang didn’t sleep at all and, when Yang was totally able to use her arm in a normal way, Mia decided to teach her some martial art moves. In other words, Mia wanted Yang to learn how to use her arm faster by practicing martial arts.

And now, Blake was still wondering who was follow who. The moves, the breath, Yang and Mia was in perfect synchrony. That, plus the fact that Mia looked like Yang, made Blake feel like she was only watching one person. Then Mia and Yang stopped their moves with a sigh.

“Okay!” Mia said while she was turned to Yang. “With this your training and rehabilitation is… finished!!!”

“Yes, Blake look!!!” The blonde said. She showed her right arm and began to move it. It was like she had always had it. Then Yang saw that one person was missing. “Hey, Where’s Raven?”

“She said something about making a call and hunting a bird.” Blake said and before Yang or Mia could ask if the bird that Raven mentioned was a nevermore, the faunus said next. “A normal bird and not a grimm.”

“So, a bird going to hunt another bird.” Yes, Yang was trying to make a joke about Raven’s name. But, she couldn’t do it because she thought that Raven was a cat faunus… well, half-faunus. “Mia” sounds like a cat’s name, but “Raven” was the name of a bird and cats hunt birds. “I feel like Raven’s name is a kinda ironic.”

“I know why you’re saying that.” Mia said. “When we were younger, a lot a kids used to make jokes about Raven’s name. You know, because she has cat ears, but my sis is really proud of her name.”

“Why?” Blake ask.

“Because Raven was named after a really dear person to Dad. Mama was the one who named me, by the way.” Suddenly, Mia turned to look at Yang. “I just remembered that I have a gift for you, I’ll return in a little bit.”

Without another word Mia just left the balcony. She didn’t said where she was going, so Yang decided to sit herself next to Blake. It was the first time that they were alone in a long time, but they didn’t even know what to say. For a second Blake looked at Yang’s prosthetic and suddenly she looked to another place. She was happy that Yang had recovered her arm, but now that arm will be the eternal memory of how she almost lost her. Of how Adam almost _killed_ Yang and everything was her fault. Even if Yang said the opposite, that feeling will be forever in her heart.

“I think that I’ll do the same as Raven.” Yang said. “I’m going to cover my arm with bandages.”

“Why?”

“Because it looks cool and…” Yang was looking her new arm and then she turn to look at Blake. “It’s a little hard to look at my arm, it makes me remember what happened.”

Guilt. Those words made Blake feel guilty. Even if the arm looks cool, even if Yang said that she didn’t blame her for what happened, Blake will still feel guilty no matter what happens. “Destroy everything that you love.” That sentence didn’t stop resonating in her head. She knew Adam and, because of that, she knew that he never left something unfinished. It was more than certain that the next time that Adam saw Yang… he will finish what he started.

“This arm will remind me how weak I was.”

After hearing that words, Blake looked at Yang, Why she was saying that? Before Blake could ask anything, she saw Yang raise her arm. The metal hand had turned into a fist and her eyes showed determination.

“With this arm, I swear that the next time that I see that stupid red-haired guy, I’ll punch him so hard that he will lose all of his teeth.”

“Revenge because he cut off your arm?” Blake asked but she never expected Yang’s answer.

“No. Revenge because he hurt you.”

Because Adam had hurt her? Yang wasn’t angry for her arm, she was angry because Adam hurt her. Blake was a little shocked for that but, for some reason, those words made her blush… why? Yeah, she was happy. Yang was more worried for her than anything else, but why did she blush? That couldn’t be normal.

“Are you ok?” Yang asked “Your face is red.”

“Y-yeah, don’t worry.” Blake said, trying to calm herself. “It’s just that… I can’t believe that you are angry just because I got hurt.”

Yang sighed. If she was honest to herself, she didn’t know why she was so angry. Someone had hurt her partner, yes. She would definitely hit anyone who dared to hurt her friends, but this was different. She didn’t only want to punch that guy, but also she wanted to let him know that she won’t let him lay another finger on Blake ever again. Yang looked at her right arm again, no matter how much she tried… she couldn’t get angry for what happened to her arm. But everything was different when she remembered Blake’s cries and the picture of the red-haired faunus stabbing her. She felt so angry. Yang turned to look at Blake and she sighed again.

“Listen.” The blonde said. “He hurt you, he _almost killed_ you, and the way you look when you talk about him I can said that he’s someone who you don’t ever want to see again. That gives me plenty of reasons to want to punch him right in the face.”

“Those are my words” Blake said with a little smile. It was funny that Yang felt the same way as her.

“So, let’s beat he together, ok?”

Yang had showed her left fist and Blake did the same. They then knocked their fists together. They made a deal to beat Adam when they saw him again.

_“I wanted a kiss.”_

The owner of that thought was Mia. She had arrived some seconds ago and she feel very happy to see how her mothers were getting closer and closer. They were almost at the point to realize they romantic feeling for each other, but she really wanted to see a kiss between Blake and Yang. But… well everything in time. Now the only thing that she wanted to do was give Yang her present, the other half of Ember Celica. She had recovered it after Silver helped her get Blake out of the evacuation ship a month ago. Mia was hoping that Yang would love the present… and that she didn’t ask any questions about how she got it.

**Some place outside of the dorms.**

_“So, you and the other return to Vale tomorrow.” Qrow asked._

“Right, Grunkle.” Raven said. She laughed a little when she heard how Qrow said that calling him “Grunkle” made him feel pretty old. “By the way, Can you do me a favor?”

_“What kind of favor?”_

“It’s about Roman Torchwick and his partner Neopolitan. Listen, right now they’re hidden in a cave in the Emerald Forest. Roman has some pretty bad wounds and Neo is taking care of him. So I need you…”

_“I get it. I just need to go get them, right?”_

“Yep. Summer and I will talk to you and your group tomorrow. It’s about the rest of our plan and Roman and Neo are two important pieces for it.”

_“Okay. Just tell me which cave and I will go get them.”_

“I’ll send you the coordinates. See you tomorrow.”

After the call ended, Raven sent Roman and Neo’s location to Qrow and that was it. Her first job had finished and now it was time for the second one. Her eyes focused on one tree, or better said, she was looking at something in the tree. It was a black bird with red eyes, the same bird who had been around Beacon the last two weeks. It was also the same one that she saw the day that she was in Patch with Yang. Raven smiled while she saw the raven.

“Raven Branwen.” She said. “It’s really nice to finally meet you.”

The raven turned into a woman. A very tall woman with a japanese-style red dress and a grimm mask was in her face. She took out her sword while she looked at the blonde girl. She was ready to attack her at any moment.

“Calm down! I just want to talk.” The red-eyed girl said in her defense.

“Okay, talk then.”

“First, can you take off that mask? I like to talk face to face.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess that everyone know what we’ll have in the next chapter, the question is, Yang will hit her mother when she saw her?...maybe, as always I hope that everyone had enjoy the chapter, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	12. A story from the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So before we start I just need to clarify something, okay so I just realize how hard and confuse is to write something when you have two characters with the same name basically when the two Ravens think about the other or if the two end up in the same scene, things will be like this.
> 
> Raven= Yang’s mom.
> 
> Rae= Bumblebee kid.
> 
> Now we can start.

The last day of training, even if team RWBY didn’t know it, had shown a lot of good things. First, Yang had recovered the other half of Ember Celica and her rehabilitation and training was complete. Second, for short period of five seconds, Weiss had been able to summon “The Knight”, or at least his arms. Summer had said that with more training she will be able to summon it in longer periods of time. For some reason Raven was missing during a big part of the day but she came back a few hours before the day’s end. Now the girls were having a peaceful sleep. Something that, in the beginning, was hard due to the “two people sleeping in an individual-bed” but they got used to it.

But someone’s sleep was coming to the end.

“Yang, wake up.” Raven said while she was trying to wake up the blonde. “Yang.”

“Hmm… give me five minutes…” Suddenly she felt how her nose was covered with something and the lack of air make her open the eyes. She looked at Raven. “What’s your problem? Do you have any idea of what time it is?”

“And do you have any idea of why you’re hugging Blake?”

After those words Yang turned to the left side of the bed and… in fact she was hugging her partner. Yang’s face turned red. She turned to look at Raven to try and explain it. Things like “I always hug a pillow” or “Reflex! This a reflex thing.” But Raven didn’t care about it, she just took Yang’s clothes (jacket, scarf and gauntlets because nobody had pajamas) and she threw them at the blonde’s face.

“Dress up and follow me.”

“What?...why?...where!?” Confused wasn’t enough to describe Yang’s feelings at that moment.

“Just do it.”

.

.

.

With the exception of the grimm’s growls, the night was very peaceful. The sky was totally clear, there wasn’t a single cloud preventing blocking the stars, the weather… was cold. A tolerable cold, a beautiful sky, good weather, a peaceful night, the balcony of the dorm’s building wasn’t only a good place for training, it was also a good place for inner peace. Yang didn’t know why Raven wanted to take her there. She was going to ask about it but, suddenly, she realized that Raven had disappeared.

Was this some kind of joke?

“But she isn’t the funny type, neither is Summer…” Yang said to herself. “Mia’s idea… maybe Silver’s.”

“It’s been a while.”

When Yang heard that, she quickly turned to see who had said it. The voice’s tone didn’t sound familiar to her, but the person that she saw standing in the middle of the balcony looked very familiar. The japanese-style dress, the katana, even the mask looked familiar. Several flashbacks of her battle against Neo come to her mind… it can’t be…

The women took off her mask and Yang was speechless. The face, the hair, the shape of her eyes, and her height. The feeling of “Am I looking at myself in a mirror?” that Yang had when she saw Mia returned. The woman in front of Yang was identical to her or, more specifically, Yang was identical to the women in front of her.

“Yang, we have a lot to ta…”

Raven wasn’t able to finish her sentence because she suddenly felt a strong pain in her face and she ended up sitting on the floor. Yang had hit her. Raven had expected a lot of things, but a punch to her face wasn’t one of them. It wasn’t like she was expecting a hug either, she turned to look at her daughter. Yang’s eyes had changed to red and she was breathing hard. The fact that she was angry was more than evident, at least Raven could feel grateful that Yang didn’t hit her with her right arm.

“Why?” The blonde said, she was really trying hard to calm herself. “Why are you here?”

“You didn’t hear me? We have a lot to talk about. I have been watching you and your friends the last two weeks.”

“I don’t mean that!” She cried out. “I mean, why right now? Why after all this years!?”

Raven sighed, she really didn’t have the answers. In first place, she didn’t even know why she accepted Rae’s request to do this. Raven was still sitting on the floor and looking at Yang, she gave her best smile, or at least she tried to.

“Sit down and, if you are searching for the guilty party, you just need to look for a red-eyed and blonde cat.”

 _“Raven!?”_ Yang thought, but why? In first place, how did she know about her mother? Seriously, team SSMR was full of mysteries.

Yang accepted her mother’s suggestion and she sat herself on the floor. The two were face to face and Yang was trying very hard to not look at her mother’s face. She had been out of her life since… well, ever and, now, having Raven in front of her was strange. Yang then looked at her mother’s eyes. Her red eyes, they were identical to Rae’s eyes not only in color but also in shape. They were exactly the same and, while Yang’s face was showing a lot of mixed emotions, Raven’s face was totally stoic.

They were surrounded by silence for several minutes. Neither of them knew what say. Yang took a deep breath and looked at her mother’s face. She had been waiting this for a very long time and now, just because she was a little shocked, she was going to miss the opportunity to know why her mother left her? Of course not.

“Why did you leave your team?” She asked. “Why did you leave dad and uncle? Why did you leave **_me_**?”

There were a little moment of silence. Raven had closed her eyes, it was like she was thinking about how she was going to answer that and then the black-haired woman opened her eyes. Purple eyes were watching red eyes. Yang felt a kind of deja vu of the day that she met Rae.

“Yang.” Raven said. “Do you know the four maiden’s story?”

“That isn’t what I asked!”

“Just answer and then I’ll answer all your questions.”

The maiden’s story, of course she knew it. It was a classic fantasy story, but the current conversation was about why Raven left her family, not about a kid’s tale. Yang was going to argue about that but, when she saw her mother… Yang almost freaked out when she saw a small flame in Raven’s hand. That **can’t** be her semblance because, of what Yang remembered of the train incident, Raven had opened some kind of portal after she saved her. So where did that flame come from?

“What would you think if I told you that that story is real?” Raven said and then the flame in her hand just disappeared.

“You’re kidding, right?” That couldn’t be real, just… no, that was crazy.

“No, I’m not. Right now there are four women with “magic powers”, the maiden’s powers.”

“Then… you are…”

“Yes, I’m the summer maiden to be more specific.” She said while she was looking at the mask in her right hand. “I don’t know when it happened, I just got these powers in my last year at Beacon… at least I thought it was on that date. Maybe I met the previous summer maiden without knowing it, most likely on a mission or just coincidently. It doesn’t matter as, before I knew it, I was a maiden.”

“Okay.” Yang said, she wasn’t even trying to believe in her mother words. After what she saw it was evident that Raven wasn’t lying. “Let me ask you this, if you left us just because you got some strange magic powers, which was a really stupid action, but how did you get them?”

“For that answer, you need to listen the full version of the maiden’s story.”

Then, just like that, Raven told it. She told Yang about Salem, Exitium, what happened to the original maidens, she even talked about the relationship between the maidens and the silver-eyed people and, the most important thing, how the maiden’s powers passed to another woman. For some reason, Yang couldn’t doubt Raven’s words. Maybe the fact that she saw how Summer was training Ruby to be able to use her eyes powers had played a key fact in that. The information had been interesting, and almost disturbing, but it didn’t answer Yang’s questions.

“What does that have to do with my questions?” The blonde said and she saw how her mother sighed while she focused on her mask.

“Ozpin has a group which is something like “The world keepers” or something like that. After I found out that I was a maiden, he was the one who told me about it. He only told me about the maidens and I learned about Salem over time. He told me that even with a maiden powers and duties, I could still having a normal life. So I did. I graduated from Beacon together with my friends, Tai and I got together and shortly after that you were born.” She sighed and a little smile appeared on her face. “I was so happy.”

Yang clenched her teeth and fists after those words. If she was happy then why did she leave? Fury was growing inside her. Yang wanted to hit Raven again, but harder. Maybe her eyes had changed to red because suddenly Raven told her to not get mad.

“Believe me or not, I don’t leave my family without a reason.” Raven let out a little laugh and she covered her eyes with her left hand. “Now that I think about it, I feel stupid.”

“Okay, continue”

“Before you born, better said, before I even know that I was pregnant, I did a little research and I ended up finding the place where Salem was hidden and thought “I can defeat her.” Obviously, Ozpin didn’t agree with my idea but, even so, I decided to go, beat her, and return. Because, in my view of point, she was someone very dangerous for the maidens and, in fact, she is.”

“But didn’t the full version of the story say that she was in a kind of other dimension that she can’t leave?”

“I never said that she can’t leave her “home.” She can but doesn’t want to do it, unless she really needs to. Returning to what I was saying, I told Tai, Qrow, and Summer that I had a mission and that I would return in a couple of days, a few weeks at most. Of course your father insisted on going with me, but I was able to make him forget that idea. Then m… _our_ travel began.”

Our? Oh right, Yang had forgotten that Raven say that she didn’t know that she was pregnant when that happened but, even so, what happened to her on that “mission” for her to make the decision to leave her family? Did she have something to do with that?

“At that time I had so much confidence in my skills, I believed that the fight with Salem would be short, unlike the long travel that we took to reach her place. I didn’t know that she was keeping an eye on my actions.” Raven’s hand began to shake, as if she was scared or furious of remembering was something that Yang didn’t know. “She knew everything about what I planned to do.”

“How?”

“Sunshine, she is basically the hermit. She can see what the current maidens are doing whenever she wants.”

Wait, did Raven call her sunshine? Taiyang and Summer used to call her that. She even had some memories, like two or three, of Qrow calling her that as well. How did she know about that nickname? Before she could ask that, Raven continued with the story.

“And then the battle began. Since the very first second, the power difference was very evident and , to make things worse, my powers didn’t work against her. I decided to keep fighting until I realized that my chances of winning were less than 1%. I decided to escape but, of course, she wouldn’t let me go so easily. She disarmed and cornered me between a rock wall and herself. My chances of escape were 0, so I closed my eyes and waited to feel a sudden pain in my neck or my chest. Several seconds passed and I didn’t feel what I was waiting for, so I decided to open my eyes and I saw her pointing at my belly. What she said made me feel as though my body was as cold as ice.”

.

.

.

_“Interesting.” Salem said. “I can feel a tiny spark of life inside you.”_

_A tiny spark of life? No, no, and more no. She can’t be pregnant, she just can’t but come to thing “that” have come since the last month. Raven felt her whole body freese, since when? She had done a lot of crazy things the last days, she hadn't slept or eaten properly. She went cold and hungry during her travel and then the fight that she had only a few seconds ago. What the hell had she done!? She hadn’t only put her own life in danger, but also someone else’s._

_“You’re scared, I can see it.” Raven heard “Killing you would be a waste, but killing someone else would not. If you don’t want that to happen then I recommend you to accept my proposal.”_

.

.

.

“You made a deal with her!?” Yang cried. “What the hell you were thinking!?”

“I can understand why you’re mad, but try to understand me. I was scared, she said that she **would** kill you and after that the next on the list would be all of my loved ones.”

“You were scared because of that and not for your own life” That was everything that Yang was able to say, she was feeling a storm inside her due to the mixed emotions.

“One day you will understand why I did what I did. The deal was basically this, she would let me return to my home to give birth to you but, after that, I had to return to her and become her slave. Doing whatever she said to me without doubting it. I accepted but with one term, I made her promise me that, no matter what happened, she **_wouldn’t_** hurt my family.”

“But there was a possibility that she won’t keep her promise.”

“I know it, but at that time hearing that make me feel calm. You already know the next part, you were born after 8 months so I was able to stay with you for one month. After that, I left. Summer and Taiyang got together, Ruby was born, you grew up without knowing my existence and then… Summer found me.”

“What!?” Yang cried out while she stood up from the floor. “When did that even happen? Her last mission, the mission in Mistral, she found you at that moment, right?”

Silence. Raven turned to look away like she didn’t want to answer that.

“What are you waiting for!?” Yang yelled. “Answer me!”

“I don’t know how she did it.” She answered. “She didn’t find me by coincidence, Summer was there with every intention of looking for me. How do she know that I was in Mistral? I don’t know but, knowing her, it’s more than likely that she did a lot of research. She was my partner, best friend rather, and, besides Qrow, she knew me better than anyone.”

“But…” Yang scratched her head. She was surprised to hear that, but she was also confused. “That means that she didn’t have a mission there, right?”

“As I know, she really had a mission there. Something about helping Haven academy with a grimm problem. But that was merely a facade to hide her true intentions and then Summer found me. I don’t remember the last time that I saw her so angry and, like you, she was demanding answers. I decided to open a portal to ran away but Summer wouldn’t let me go so easily. She tackled me and, consequently, she entered in the portal together with me. To make things worse, the portal destination was Salem’s place.” Raven took in some air, she know what would happen when she said the next sentences. But she no longer cared about the consequences. “I don’t even need to tell you what happened next.”

And that was all. The next thing that Raven knew was that she was lying in the floor again with a great pain in her face. Yang had hit her again, but this time with the right arm and stronger. This time blood was coming out of Raven’s nose and mouth. She looked at the blonde, her purple eyes had change to red and her body, especially her fists, were shaking with rage. Yang’s body was full with rage and it was too evident that she was fighting against herself to not hit Raven again.

“You let her get killed…”

Raven didn’t said anything, she just sit up again while she was cleaning the blood from her face. She looked at her daughter for a second and suddenly she looked in a different direction. Yang lost her cool after that action.

“You let her get killed!?” She didn’t think twice and she hit her mother again, this time the punch was strong enough to knock Raven back a few meters. Raven coughed some blood after that. “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!? You didn’t even try to save her!? Do you hate her that much!? You’re the worst! Traitor! Asshole! You’re the most horrible person that I have ever met!”

“You can say whatever you want about me but, remember this, I’m still your mother.”

“Shut up! Don’t you dare call yourself my mother ever again. Summer was… no, Summer **IS** my mom! You're nothing but a stranger with whom I share blood. Did you have any idea of how much we suffered when Summer died!? And just like that, you let her die!!” Her right fist was shaking due the anger. She didn’t know how many punches would she have to give Raven to feel better, but she was ready to hit her once again, until…

“And do you think that I don’t feel guilty for what happened!?”

Yang saw how there were some tears coming out of Raven’s eyes. She hadn’t even cleaned the blood off her face. Yang’s eyes returned to purple and the urge to hit Raven had completely vanished but, why she was like that?

“There’s not a single day in which I don’t say to myself “I could have done more for her.” I tried to help Summer at that moment but everything was in vain. Salem wasn’t going to let Summer leave that place alive, the blood, her screams, my nightmares are about that moment, and Summer…” The tears were coming out of her red eyes “She was a fool until the end. She didn’t even hate me for what happened. Instead of that, she smiled at me in her last moments and her last words…”

_“I’m glad to know that you didn’t leave us for no reason. Leaving your family and friends to work for someone who wants to hurt us must be hard. I was mad at you, but don’t worry, no matter how many bad things you have done, I forgive you.”_

“Salem had broken her promise of not hurting my family. She said that for her “Family” are the ones with whom I share blood, Qrow and you. That meant that neither Taiyang nor Ruby were safe. I didn’t attack her or ever try to stop working for her because that meant putting my life and everyone else’s in danger. That day I did two things, first I made Salem promise me that  she wouldn’t hurt or try to kill the Xiao Long-Rose family, including Qrow. The second thing…” She looked down at her Grimm mask and sighed a very long sigh. “I decided to become the monster that everyone thought I was. I told Qrow that I had been the one who killed Summer and doing the same as the White Fang, I decided to wear a grimm mask. At this current time, who is the most hated monster?”

“And when you saved me just out of compassion…”

“Of course I lied to Qrow about the compassion thing. I saved you because I was worried Cinder, Roman, and their respective teams were working for Salem too. I was supervising that mission and I was able to convince them that I only saved you because “We don’t need to kill anyone, we already have what we need.” Thank Oum neither of them had figured out that you’re my kid.”

Yang didn’t know what to say. She had always wanted to know the truth behind her mother, but she never thought that the true will be that dark… now she even felt bad for hitting Raven. Yang could almost understand why Raven left, yes _almost_ , some things were a little hard to understand at that moment.

“You had learned the truth.” Raven said while she was cleaning the blood and tears from her face. “I think that you will do what you said in front of Summer grave, that you won’t care about me anymore”

“How did you know that?”

“I was there. After Summer died, I promised to myself to visit her grave once a month to leave her some flowers. The white roses were her favorites, the day that Rae took you to Patch I was there leaving the flowers.”

That answered the flower mystery, but if Raven heard and saw Yang that day then that mean that the hug that Yang felt when she said “I don’t want to be alone” was Raven. Yang was going to ask about that, but before she could open her mouth.

“Okay, time’s up. Tomorrow will be a busy day and Yang needs some rest.”

Both Yang and Raven, turned to see the owner of that voice, it was Rae.

“Raven!” Yang looked at her mom and then she looked at her friend, this was the first time in her life when she was in a place with two people with the same name. “I mean Rae. Right now I have a lot of questions for you.”

She couldn’t finish the sentences because Yang suddenly felt Rae spray her with some kind of gas who make her feel extremely tired and she just fell asleep. The half-faunus caught her before she hit the floor and after that she said to Raven that she didn’t need to worry, Yang was just asleep.

“I feel really grateful that you accepted my request.” Rae said. “If you didn’t show up then I planned to tell Yang that everything was Mia’s idea. You know, something like a joke.”

“Oh, come on. You know that I accepted because you said that you will convince Yang that everything was a dream. Did you really need to knock her unconscious?”

“I prefer the term epiphany. You said everything to her that you want to say and you even cried in front of her. For your question, if I hadn’t done it, then how were you going to leave this place?”

Raven didn’t said anything, what Rae had said was a very good point.

“I see. By the way, before I go, I need to tell you something that I was thinking the last two weeks.”

“Let me guess, it’s about my team?”

Raven didn’t answer and she just turned her back to Rae.

“The “Rosch” sisters, Summer and Silver. Summer doesn’t only have my best friend’s name, but she also looks exactly like Ruby. Her personality is just like the Schnee kid’s and her little sister, Silver, she is basically the double of Ruby’s partner, but her hair is reddish-white. If we talk about personality, her’s is identical to Ruby’s. Then there is you and your twin, the “Xiabon” twins. Mia and Raven, Mia is basically a black-haired version of Yang and her right eye change to yellow when she uses her semblance. There’s you, cat ears and blonde hair, I don’t even know what to say about your eyes because they look like mine.”

“And your point is…?”

“I have been with Salem for enough time to know that the things that we believe are impossible or crazy are actual possible. Seeing how Summer and Silver are the perfect combination of Ruby and Weiss, like you and Mia are the perfect combination of Yang and Blake, there can be some possibilities about you four’s true identity.”

“But you don’t believe in that possibility because…”

“Yang doesn’t have any reason to name one of her kids after me.”

Raven looked at the two blondes for the last time. She put her mask on and turned herself into a raven flew away from the school. Rae just sighed after seeing how her grandma disappeared on the horizon. She felt grateful, she had been able to meet the person of whom she was named after and she already had solved some mystery about where her personality had come from.

“We don’t only share name but also personality, in some aspects.” She said to herself while she put Yang on her back for the return trip to the dorm. “So living, pretending to be a monster, and dieing as one. yeah, I can understand.”

There was a single thought in Rae’s head while she was making the way back for the dorm, and that thought didn’t have anything to do with her grandma or her story, it was about Yang.

_“Man, unlike Mama and Mia, Dad is pretty heavy.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raven’s portals, vol.3 opening portal, the portals who appeared in the fight scene when Cinder become a Maiden…half-maiden actually, there’s have to be a connecting, also I don’t know how many stories are where Raven is a Maiden but she give that feel but who know, by the way Raven know about Exitium and his relationship with Salem because she make her research (spend seventeen years with the enemy have to leave something) as always I hope that everyone had enjoy the chapter, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	13. Return to Vale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! It’s have been a while since the last time that I publish a chapter, but things happen, details aren’t necesary so I’m only going to say that both, Ilax and me, had been busy this days but that is that and this is this, so for now just enjoy the chapter.

Everything had just been a dream?

Why did I dream that?

Those questions had been in Yang’s mind since she woke that morning.

There wasn’t any signs showing that what had happened the previous night had been real. Her clothes were in the same place and position that she had left them before falling asleep, her hand didn’t show signs that she had hit anything, her right hand didn’t have a single drop of blood, or any sign that she had hit someone with that hand, and, when she saw Raven and ask her about the last night, the answer who Yang got was…

_“What are you talking about? Did you have a weird dream or something like that?”_

A dream… but how would she have been able to dream about a person whom she had never seen before? Yang had only seen her mother in a picture once. The story of the maidens turning out to be real, Salem, Exitium, Raven being the summer Maiden, Raven’s backstory, what had really happened to Summer on her last mission, where did all that even come from!?

“I must have eaten something bad.” Yang said to herself.

She was on the balcony trying to find any evidence that she hadn’t dreamt the encounter with her mother. A drop of blood on the floor or a strand of black hair would be enough but, as she was already expected, there were nothing like that. Yang sighed, she had to face reality. Every memory of the previous night have been a dream, or rather, a hallucination. Yang was so focused on her thoughts that she didn’t notice Ruby was behind her.

“Yang.” Ruby said and she heard a scream from her sister. It was very clear that Ruby had frightened Yang by accident.

“You almost gave me a heart attack.” She said, catching her breath. “What happened?”

“That’s my question, what happened to you?”

“Why do you say that?”

“You’ve been acting strange all morning. Did something happen to you?” Ruby asked firmly. “You know that I’m not gonna accept ‘nothing’ as an answer.”

Yang sighed, she didn’t know how to say what she had dreamed. Ruby knew that she and Yang were half-sisters as Yang had told her 5 years ago. Of course, Ruby had said that she didn’t care about something like that because they were sisters no matter what. But… say that you had a dream in which your biological mother had told you why she left you, what had really happened with your adoptive mother, and that a fairy tale turned out to be true. It wasn’t easy.

“I just had a bad dream, that’s all.” Yang answered. She saw Ruby’s eyes and they showed that she wasn’t satisfied with that answer. “Hallucination, epiphany, dream, nightmare. I don’t even know what term I should use”

“Yang… you’re scaring me.”

“I dreamed about my mother, that she had been here, and that I talked with her. It’s hard to think that everything was just a dream.” She was looking at her right hand, the hand with which she had struck Raven. “It felt so real…”

There were a moment of silence and then Ruby put one of her hands on her sister’s shoulder. Since she learned about the half-sisters thing, Ruby had ever been careful about touching the issue of Yang’s biological mother. She know that it was hard for the blonde and, if Yang didn’t want to talk about her “dream”, then she won’t force her to.

“Summer and Raven want us outside the dorms.”

The two sisters freaked out as Silver suddenly appeared behind them. They already knew that Silver’s semblance was super-speed but, even so, seeing her appear and disappear in differents places in a wink was strange. It was also scary when she just appeared behind or in front of someone. Silver took Ruby and Yang hands and, with a smile on her face, a smile that make Ruby and Yang’s faces turned totally white because they know what Silver was planning to do, she said.

“Let’s go together”

.

.

.

Some people just can’t with Silver’s speed. Those had been Mia’s words when Silver, Ruby, and Yang arrived. The reddish-white haired girl was totally fine but, on the other hand, Yang and Ruby faces were totally white and their hair was a complete mess. Ruby was more or less accustomed to the speed due her own semblance, but Silver’s was totally different. Travel at the speed of the sound isn’t cute if you’re not the semblance user. Weiss scolded Silver for what she did, then they had talked about it because apart of Summer, Raven and Mia no one of team RWBY can handle Silver’s speed. Blake hit Mia over the head because she was the one who came up with  the idea, but neither Mia nor Silver were angry about their respective “punishments.” Things like that brought them good memories. Summer and Raven could only watch the scene while sighing and smiling.

“Okay.” Summer said. “Yang and Ruby get a hold of yourselves, Weiss please stop scolding Silver, Blake feel free to hit Mia again because she was the one with the idea, and I will feel very grateful if everyone could pay attention.”

“We aren’t going to train today?” Ruby suddenly asked.

“No.” Raven said while she pointed at the ship behind her. “See this ship, we return to Vale in it today.”

There were a little moment of silence and then a big “What!?” came out of team RWBY’s mouths. Mia hide herself behind her sister when she saw Weiss looking at her, and Silver did the same. A month ago the two had told Weiss that the ship was “damaged” and wouldn’t be able to fly but, in Mia and Silver defense, they never said that Mia wasn’t able to fix the ship whenever she wanted. Technically, she was the one who damaged the ship too but if they said that it would probably result with Weiss scolding them or, in the worst case, trying to hit them.

“Before anything.” Raven began to speak. “Think about this, we literally kidnapped all of you. You four have been missing for a whole month now, so please think about the people who haven’t heard anything about you for a WHOLE month.”

“Dad and uncle…” Ruby said to herself.

Yang was also thinking about her father and uncle. Knowing them, they most likely thinking about the girls. Taiyang was probably very worried and wondering what had happened and, on the other hand, Qrow was drinking while he traveled around Vale trying to search for any clue of their whereabouts. Weiss hadn’t thought much about her dad, but Winter was different. Her work in the army kept her very busy so, even if she wanted to search for her, due time and work issues she couldn’t. For Blake… she didn’t have any family, so she didn’t care about what Raven said. But, everyone else were going with the girls, she didn’t have another option.

“Okay.” Summer said. “We leave in ten minutes. Collect all your stuff, Raven, Mia, Silver and I will decide something important and then we leave.”

“Can we know what that decision is?” Weiss asked.

“Who is going to be the pilot and the co-pilot.” The girls answered.

Ruby, Weiss, and Yang knew that Summer and Silver were able to fly the ship and it was more than likely that Raven and Mia knew how to do it too. From what team RWBY was could tell, Raven and Summer didn’t want their sisters to be the pilots. They were talking about crazy flying habits. Weiss already knew what Summer and Raven meant. She never brought it up because since then she had more important things on her mind. But, when Silver brought her to Beacon, the flight wasn’t “comfortable”. There were many unnecessary accelerations, pirouettes, acrobatics, and a lot of things that she didn’t want to remember. She wished that Summer and Raven would convince their sisters to give up that idea but, when she saw team SSMR playing rock, paper, scissors for make the choice… Weiss was the first one to go to the dorms to collect everything that they had left there.

“We’re gonna win!!!” Silver and Mia yelled in the background.

.

.

.

There was more team SSMR’s stuff than team RWBY’s in the room. Ruby, and the others, just took their respectives weapons. The next step was to collect Summer, Silver, Mia and Raven’s things as, for some reason, the girls never left their weapons behind, especially Summer. She really didn’t want anyone to inspect it. That was bad thing for Ruby because she really wanted to know what Summer’s weapon looked like. The things that they collected were very simple, the girl’s backpacks, a toolbox, probably Mia’s, some paper with drawings and instructions for Yang’s arm maintenance, some books, probably Raven or Summer’s, a pack of bandages, definitely Raven’s, and, last but not least, the all important packs of cookies and tuna that were definitely Silver and Mia’s respectives snacks.

When they returned to the ship, they found that Mia and Silver had lost the game and that the pilot and co-pilot will be Raven and Summer respectively. Weiss felt very relieved.

“Summer and I will take our seats, you can find a comfortable place for sit down, and we take off in two minutes.”

Ruby and Yang already knew that the only seats that the ship had were the ones in the cockpit. The ship had been used by the White Fang to bring Grimm to Beacon so, basically, they were in a cargo plane. It was big and empty space where the only place for sit was the floor. At least the trip from Beacon to Vale wasn’t long, so they could deal with it. Suddenly, they felt the ship move but, in a matter of seconds, they didn’t feel anything. Summer and Raven were a pair of awesome pilots.

“Oh.” Mia gasped. “I can finish it right now!”

“Are you talking about the modification for Yang’s arm!?” Ruby said, she had already took out the toolbox but, for her bad luck, Mia’s answer was no.

“Oh! I know what she’s talking about.” Silver said and she began to search the books that Ruby had brought from the room.

“They’re yours?” Yang asked.

“No, they’re mine.”

There was silence while everyone, with the exception of Silver, looked at Mia. They were very surprised because the girl didn’t look like the reading type. People are full of surprises. Silver handed Mia a red-covered book that looked to be very old look book. Mia most likely had that book since she was a kid but, in Blake’s opinion, that wasn’t an excuse for the book state. Mia opened the book and began to read while, on the other hand, Silver took out the toolbox and began the maintenance of her weapon. It seemed like the toolbox wasn’t owned by a single person. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang turned to each other and began to talk of… whatever, and Blake focused on Mia instead.

“What’s the story about?” Blake asked.

“I think that you already know it. The main character is a faunus girl who is trying to find her place in a world where a lot of person discriminate against her just for her animals parts. This book was a very controversial, but heartwarming story. Sadly, a lot a people think that this isn’t a good book for kids after the White Fang changed.”

Mia was right, Blake knew that story. She even had a copy of that book when she was a kid and, even now, she read that book every time she felt the urge to remember that it isn’t a bad thing to be a faunus and she can find her own place in the world. Something that she now had thanks to her team… wait a minute, why she was thinking only in Yang? She ignored that thought and turn to look at Mia again and remembered something, wasn’t the name of the protagonist Mia?

“Your thinking that my name is the same that the heroine’s name, right?” Mia suddenly asked.

“Well… yes. I don’t think that you were actually named after that character, I just found the coincidence pretty interesting.”

“But you’re right. Remember what I said about Raven’s name?”

Raven had been named by her dad and Mia by her mom. Yes, she remembered it.

“When I ask mama why she named me “Mia” was the day before I found this book in my parents bedroom. Mama admitted that she really had named me after the main character because she wanted me to be a brave, strong, and friendly girl like the Mia of the book. She also said that Mia means "mine" or "wished-for child". Some people say that my name sounds pretty simple but, if they knew the background, they would feel jealous for not having an awesome name like mine.”

Blake could only say a long, “Ah.” She didn’t look it, but she was actually surprised about Raven and Mia’s name’s origin. Raven was named after a very dear person to her dad, maybe a family member or a friend, and Mia was named after a book character that her mom admired. Their parents had thought about the girls names very carefully and Blake thought that maybe Summer and Silver’s names had a similar origin.

The rest of the trip wasn’t the big thing. After the maintenance of her weapon, Silver fell asleep on Ruby’s lap. The red-hooded girl just thought that Silver looked so peaceful and cute, while Weiss felt confused with herself because, for a moment, she felt angry when she saw Silver sleeping in Ruby’s lap. Though, she still thought that Ruby looked cute in that position. Yang used Raven’s pack of bandages to cover her right arm and Blake took one of Mia’s books. She felt surprised because all of those books were books that she also had, though, Ninja of love wasn’t there. Mia just continue with her reading and nobody knew how much time passed but, before they realized it, the ship landed.

“That was faster than I thought.” Ruby said while she began to touch Silver’s shoulder gently. “Silver, wake up.”

“Five more minutes...”

“If you don’t wake up, I’ll eat your cookies.” Weiss said seeing how Ruby attempts of wake Silver up didn’t work at all.

For some seconds it was like Weiss’s words didn’t have a single effect on the girl but, suddenly, Silver open her blue eyes and woke up.

“Please no!” She cried. “I’m already awake! Please don’t eat my cookies!”

“I just was joking.”

Mia and Blake were still reading even though Yang told them that they had already arrived at Vale. The pair of black-haired girls said at the same time, “Five minutes more, this part is interesting.” Yang sighed and she just took the books from her friends’ hands.

“Hey!” Mia and Blake claimed “I was reading that!”

“You two can have these books back later.”

Luckily for Yang, before she could hear the claims of Blake and Mia, the doors of the ship opened. Summer and Raven were the first things that everyone saw and, according to Raven’s words, they had landed a few kilometres away from Vale’s safe zone. If they walked straight, they could get to the zone in less than 10 minutes and, immediately after hearing that, Ruby began to run in the direction that Raven had mentioned while yelling, “Dad, I’m back!!!” Yang did the same some seconds later.

“Well, they haven’t seen gran… I mean Taiyang in a whole month” Summer said trying to justify her mom and aunt’s actions. “So let’s start walking.”

Summer turned to look at the others and suddenly she realized that there were only three people behind her instead of five. Silver and Mia had disappeared as well and, knowing them, there can be only one possibility of where they could have gone. Come to think of it, Silver had said that she really want to see Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora past selves. Summer sighed and began to walk together with Raven, Weiss and Blake were following them with one thought in their minds, being a big sister was hard when you have an hyperactive little sister.

.

.

.

Taiyang was doing the same that he had done for the last month, nothing. He was just sitting in a random place playing with Zwei, who Qrow had brought. He wondered how and where Yang and Ruby could be. Knowing that his two daughters had disappeared, maybe kidnaped, wasn’t easy for him and neither was the fact that Qrow was acting like he didn’t care about it. He knew that Yang and Ruby were strong but, in her current state, Yang could be in trouble. He tried to begin a search to try and find them, but Qrow and Ozpin, even Glynda, didn’t let him do it. He sighed and suddenly Tai felt Zwei jump up on his lap.

“You’re worried for them too.” He said as Zwei cried. Tai began to pet the dog’s head. “You know, sometimes I feel as though I can hear their voices.”

Tai closed his eyes and continued to feel as though he could hear Yang and Ruby’s voices.

“Dad!” There was Ruby’s.

“Ruby, wait for me!” Now there was Yang’s. Something was strange this time, the voices sounded more realistic than usual and even Zwei began to bark. It was a happy bark, and he also began to hear steps but, before Tai could even turn back to see who was there, someone tackled him.

“Dad!” Ruby cried out with tears in her eyes.

“Ruby?” he said, doubting what his eyes were seeing. But he quickly  realized that he wasn’t dreaming. “Ruby!”

“What, did you miss us too?” Yang asked. She had Zwei in her arms and he couldn’t stop licking her.

How did you two get here? What happened a month ago? Why did you go away? Tai had more questions for his kids but he was too busy hugging Ruby to worry about those questions. He was happy and glad when he verified that he wasn’t dreaming. Everything was fine until he saw Yang… she had her right arm.

“Yang your arm!!!” he yelled, half happy and half freaked-out.

“Heh heh, long-short-story.”

Silver and Mia were watching the happy reunion of the Xiao Long-Rose family. They were happy for their grandpa, but sad because they couldn’t and shouldn’t talk with him. Mia looked too much like Yang and that could generate a lot of questions that they wouldn’t be able to answer. Now the next step was to visit team JNPR’s past-selves and then go hide in Ozpin’s room.

“Finally, found you!” They heard Weiss exclaim. “Don’t leave like that ever again.”

“Sorry.” Silver said. “Where are our sisters?”

“They said that they needed to talk with someone and that you two know what to do.” Blake answered.

Well, with Silver’s semblance they could easily get to Ozpin’s room without being seen. Maybe they should give up on seeing team JNPR. Knowing Summer and Raven, they would get angry if they didn’t get to them quickly. So, Silver grabbed Mia’s hand but, before the reddish-white haired girl could even activate her semblance, they were tackled and subsequently embraced with a lot of strength. Silver and Mia ended up speacless when they saw who was hugging them, it was Nora. Well, a younger version of her, because the Nora Valkyrie that they knew had long hair and wore glasses.

“Yang, Weiss, I can’t believe that you two came back.” She said with tears in her eyes. “Everyone was worried, except that crow person, but the headmaster didn’t let us start searching for you and… why did you two dye and cut your hair!?”

She yelled suddenly when she got a better look at the people that she was hugging. Knowing Yang, she would never, **NEVER,** agree to cut or dye her hair but, then why did she have short, black hair right now? And Why Weiss do the same with her hair? Furthermore, she felt that Weiss had shrunk, but the people in her arms had to be Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee… right?.

“N-nora…” Ren said.

He was trying really hard to keep his cool. Ren was pointing at Weiss and Blake and he was shocked with the resemblance between Weiss and the sweatshirt girl. On the other hand, Nora saw Weiss and looked back at the reddish-white haired girl. She did it again, and again, and again until…

“WHEN DID WEISS CLONE HERSELF!?”

“W-we can explain it.” Mia said nervously. “…maybe.”

.

.

.

Roman looked like a mummy.

Except for his face, his entire body was covered with bandages. He had been “eaten” by a Grimm and had been in the middle of a ship explosion. So, he was lucky with the simple fact that he was still alive. He and Neo were tied, corralled in Ozpin’s room but, they felt more comfortable there than in the cave where they had been the last month. Summer and Raven were in front of them and, before they could speak with Ozpin and the others, they wanted to have a little conversation with Roman and Neo.

“You’ve grown up since the last time that I saw you, little red.” Roman said to Summer. “What made you exchange the short hair for the long hair?”

“Sorry, but I’m not Ruby.” She said.

“Hey, Neo.” Raven said, making strange movements with her hands. Neo tilted her head, she knew that those movements were for her, but she didn’t know the meaning. “Right, you don’t know sign language yet. Want me to teach you?”

Neo couldn’t speak, that wasn’t a secret. Normally, using the note app on Roman’s scroll, she could write what she wanted to say but, when the scroll battery was low, or dead, communication became difficult. This was especially true when they didn’t have a pencil and paper near them. She had heard about sign language before, but she had never found someone who teach her. Neo looked at Raven and, with a little smile on her face, she nodded and the blonde did the same.

“Neo! Don’t be friendly with her, she’s the enemy!”

“But you don’t even know us.” Summer said “Whatever. We just need your cooperation, so don’t ask questions and listen. It’s like this, James will take you and Neo to Atlas and you will confess to all the things that you did while you were with Cinder.”

“Are you crazy!? Why the hell am I going to do that!”

“These are your charges.” The girl said while she began to count with her fingers. “Theft, terrorism, alliance with the White Fang, escaping from jail, stealing an Atlas army ship, being ones of the responsable for Beacon’s fall, and a lot of more things. If you go to trial you can easily get a… what was the punishment, Raven?”

“Life sentence.”

“And you don’t want that, right? Be cooperative and you can reduce your time.”

Those girls were blackmailing him? Furthermore, it was working. With his criminal record, he could easily get a life sentence and who knew what would happen to Neo if he went to jail. He sighed, those girl knew how to convince him and, in the current situation… Roman didn’t have any options. So, he accepted.

“Good.” Summer said while she pulled out a spray can. “You can’t hear the next conversation, so… sleep.”

In less than a wink, Roman and Neo had fallen asleep due to the “spray”. Ozpin and the other saw the whole scene and everyone was feeling strange. They just saw a fifteen-years-old girl blackmail a criminal like it was the most normal thing on the planet. Also, why did Raven know sign language? But, besides that, and thanks to the video that they saw a month ago, the meeting with Summer and Raven was “easy” for Glynda and James. Of course, they were still amazed with the fact that two women could have a kid thanks to science. The girls began to talk about their plan.

Everything was to start tomorrow and team SSMR would divide into groups; Summer/Silver and Mia/Raven. The first group was to accompany James to Atlas together with Roman and Neo to make sure that the last two wouldn’t try anything. Also, the Rose-Schnee sister had things to do in Atlas. The second group… the twins, had the more difficult part. At least that was what Raven said. She then explained that the cans of spray that they use to leave people unconscious were given to them by Future Winter for emergency use. One shot of spray can leave someone asleep for at least half a day, but drinking the liquid could have an effect of one to two months. They had three cans in the beginning but, when they arrived to the past, Silver took one can and left the other two in Raven’s possession. When she and Summer saved Pyrrha, Raven made Cinder drink the liquid in can #3. After that confession, Summer showed a little crystal ball which fit nicely in the hand. Everyone knew that it was the crystal ball that Raven Branwen future-self created to steal the maiden’s powers.

Basically, the second group’s mission was next. Mia was to use the crystal ball to steal Cinder Fall’s powers by taking advantage of the fact that she would still be unconscious. Emerald and Mercury weren’t going to be a problem for Mia.

“And do you know where is Cinder?” Qrow asked.

“Call it instinct, or whatever you want, but we know that they are in Mistral. Beacon isn’t the only academy with secret rooms, Heaven also has a lot of them. Thanks to Roman’s future-self, we know every single hiding place that Cinder’s group can use. Basically, they are Heaven’s students so they had to return to Mistral after what happened at Beacon.” Summer answered.

“But, are you sure that they are hidden in Heaven?” Glynda asked.

“Right now, Cinder is unconscious. So, Emerald and Mercury need to take care of her until she wakes back up and they only have one hiding place in Mistral where they can easily get food or anything else they want; Heaven academy. Without Cinder, Emerald and Mercury can’t do much and, if they aren’t there, we know another place where they can be.”

“And what will you do?” Ozpin asked Raven.

The blonde began to laugh and, when she stopped, her eyes focused on her Grunkle and the others in a way that was rather unpleasant.

“My part is the more interesting and funny one.” She said with a mix of confidence and emotion in her eyes. With a smile on her face she announced “I am going to fight against Salem and kill her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger, cliffhanger everywhere, please don’t think that Summer and Silver just leave the hard part to Raven and Mia, everything have an explanation, but that’s a thing for the next chapther so please be patient, as always I hope the everyone have enjoyed it, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	14. A family trip?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing important to say, just enjoy

“You are going to try to do what!?” Qrow, and almost everyone else in the room, yelled.

Summer and Raven crossed their arms while they looked each other. The pair expected this reaction. Raven sighed and she began to scratch her head. She was certain that the next few minutes were going to be difficult and filled with complaints and warnings, but she didn’t care, neither did Summer.

“In the first place.” The blonde said. “I’m not going to _try,_ I **will** defeat Salem. And please don’t worry about me, I know my own skills.”

“Don’t worry!?” Qrow said as he took Raven by her shoulders. “Do you have any idea of what fight against Salem means? That isn’t something that you can do on your own!”

“This is one of the few occasions in which I will give support to Qrow.” Glynda said before looking at Summer. She wasn’t sure if what she was about to say was correct, but there wasn’t the time to worry about that. So, she spoke to the red-hooded girl. “I suppose that you’re the team leader, and Raven’s cousin too, so how can you put your own family in danger like that?”

“That’s right.” James said. “You and your sister’s missions aren’t too bad, but your cousins’ missions are the more dangerous ones. Neither of you know if it is possible for Cinder Fall to wake up while Mia is stealing her powers. I don’t even need to say my opinion about Raven’s part.”

Ozpin hadn’t uttered a single word. He just was watching Summer and Raven, the girls’ faces were stoic, like they already have expected those reactions from Qrow and the others. But Ozpin’s mind was thinking the same at his friend’s, Raven and Mia had the more difficult parts of the mission, especially Raven. He was going to share his opinion but, before he could ever open his mouth, Summer spoke.

“We can understand why all of you are reacting like this, but we know what we are doing. We have trained for this moment for six years. All of you future selves agreed with this plan, every single part of it.”

Summer had to be kidding, there’s no way Qrow, Glynda, James, and Ozpin willingly agreed with that plan. Salem wasn’t someone who you can defeat in one vs one fight. So, why did their future selves agree with letting Raven fight alone?

“Mia and I have those missions due to semblance issues.”

“What?” Qrow said, even though he already heard her.

“Summer inherited the Schnee summoning semblance and, for ten seconds, Silver can move herself at the speed of the sound. Mia can manipulate her shadow to create ribbons capable stopping people and grimm. She also can also use her ribbon to create a shield. My semblance can manifest flames around my whole body and the flames can burn grimm and melt any inanimate thing before they can even touch my body.”

A silver-eyed warrior with the Schnee family semblance, a girl who can move herself at the speed of the sound, a girl with the ability of manipulate her own shadow, and a girl with a literal flame shield. The next generation sounded very powerful. Raven continue to speak.

“Silver can use her semblance about five times in a row before she needs to take a very long break and we need Summer eyes for when Exitium awakens. With her semblance, Mia can easily stop Emerald and Mercury, so she can just as easily steal Cinder’s powers. And for me? Salem is basically a Grimm, so my flames can hurt her. We thought through this plan very carefully and we ended up with the conclusion that my and Mia’s semblances are more appropriate for these missions.”

When the hermit lost the humanity of his heart, he basically had turned his soul into a Grimm soul. So, when he awakens, Summer’s powers will be required. That is why she can’t put herself in danger in a battle against Salem. Salem knows how dangerous the silver-eyed warriors could be, it was the reason why she left Ruby without her right eye in the bad-time-line. Salem also had a weakness that team SSMR knew very well, the crystal in her forehead.

Salem was the hermit’s half-soul in women form. Heart, brain, lungs, she didn’t have any organs and, because of that, she was pretty hard to defeat. But, even if the hermit was the one who created her with his magic, she can’t stay in the world without something to anchor her physical form. That anchor was the black crystal in her forehead’s function. If the crystal was destroyed then Salem will “die”.

As for how Raven will reach Salem’s “home” was an easy answer. One of Raven’s abilities is combining certain metals and Salem’s dark crystals so she can open a portal whenever she wanted. They also had an extra dark crystal with them and Raven was going to give it to Mia so, when she finished her part of the mission, she could go and help her twin with the fight.

Basically, things were like this. Team 1’s (Summer/Silver) first destination was the Atlas army base, and the second one was the Schnee Dust Company. Summer said that she had some things to do there. In Team 2’s (Raven/Mia) case, Mia’s destination was the Heaven academy. After what happened to Beacon, the classes of all the other kingdoms’ academies were cancelled. Like Beacon, all the other academies had secrets rooms, so Cinder’s group was hiding in one of those rooms. Raven can open a portal at any time, anywhere, so Cinder doesn’t have a safe location.

“Looks like you two thought very hard on this plan.” Ozpin said. He really hated to admit it, but the girls plan was well put together. Taking the advantages and disadvantages of each team member in consideration to see who is the most appropriate person for each task. Learning the enemy’s weaknesses, and having a backup plan in case that Raven couldn’t handle the fight by herself. “Just a question. When Salem is defeated we will have five days until Exitium attack, what do you will do when that happens?”

Summer and Raven turn to look at each other. It was like they didn’t want to talk about it, but they had already said that Summer’s eyes will be crucial in the battle. There were a moment of silence and Summer began to open her mouth to answer the question. Before she could even say a single word, the room’s door suddenly open. Silver and Mia ran into the room.

“That was close.” The two said while they closed the door.

“What happened?” Summer asked.

“We barely managed to run away from Nora.” Silver said. “Mia wasn’t able to think of a good lie to explain our resemblance to Mom and aunty.”

“Also, it is looks like Nora “kidnapped” Mama, Dad, and aunties Ruby and Weiss. If I’m correct, they are all in Pyrrha’s room right now.” Mia said before looking at her partner. “And now that we are here, there’s only one thing that we need to do.”

Before Summer or Raven could ask what their final task was, they heard Mia and Silver yell “Grunkle!!!” while they threw themselves on him. Qrow was pretty surprised when he ended up with two girls hugging him. First, when they called him “Grunkle”, he felt old and, second, it was strange that he was seeing his future great-nieces. All of them in the same place. Suddenly, Mia and Silver showed surprise when they saw Ozpin and Glynda, they had hardly aged, and finally James…

“Who are you?” the girls asked.

“I-I’m James Ironwood.”

There were a little moment of silence until Mia and Silver yelled, “No way! Grandpa James you look so young!” Of course, Qrow began to laugh when he heard how James was called “Grandpa”, and Ozpin and Glynda giggled a little. And James… his pride and soul had been destroyed thanks to those words.

Whatever question or doubt that Ozpin’s team could have had vanished thanks to Mia and Silver. Now James was too busy feeling bad for himself and Ozpin and Glynda were trying to cheer him up. Qrow kept laughing harder and harder, allowing Summer and Raven to feel a little relief. They didn’t have to answer about what they will do when Exitium awakens… yet. Summer couldn’t stop repeating the word “Grandpa”, making Jame feeling worse and worse.

“Summer, stop, You’re going to kill James with that word!” Raven said, and suddenly her partner looked at her. “What?”

“I remember that Silver and you have a job.”

Raven looked confused, and when Summer showed her a pair of black sunglasses an “Ah!” come out of her mouth. She had totally forgotten about it.

.

.

.

“For all the problems that our team caused, we’re really sorry.” Raven and Silver said trying to make amends.

Taiyang didn’t know how to react, a lot of things happened to him in less than an hour. First, Yang and Ruby had come back from who-knows-where and, second, Yang had, somehow, her right arm again. Before she could even say something about it, she and Ruby were “kidnapped” by a girl with orange hair who said something like, “I will return them to you in a couple of hours.” Now, two girls who he have never seen before were asking for his  forgiveness. They also claimed that they were the team that had been responsible for team RWBY’s disappearance. Seriously, what was happening?

“L-let me see if I get it...” Tai said, trying to calm himself. “Your team’s mission was to save Ruby’s team after what happened at Beacon. You also gave Yang a new arm and you were not allowed to return until the beginning of december? On top of all that, everything was Ozpin idea? Did I get it right?”

Raven and Silver nodded but, now that they heard it from Tai’s mouth… that story was pretty bad. However, they didn’t know any better way to explain it. There were several minutes of silence and the girls were terrified that their grandpa wouldn’t believe their story. They were worried that he will demand another answer. Silver was crossing her fingers and Raven had begun to think of another lie and then they heard Taiyang sigh.

“That Qrow. If he know about it he should have told me.”

Raven and Silver couldn’t feel more relieved. Thank Oum their grandpa had believed it. Raven answered any further questions Tai had while Silver was playing with Zwei. It was something that Tai found strange. He knew that Zwei was a friendly dog, but he was playing with Silver like he had known her for a long time. Meanwhile, in Ozpin’s room, Mia was still calling James “Grandpa”. Ozpin was giggling and Glynda was trying to stop the black-haired girl from talking, without success. Qrow and Summer were watching Raven, Silver, Taiyang, and Zwei from the window.

“Remind me why those two are talking with Tai.” Qrow said.

“Because I look like my mum and Mia looks like aunt Yang.”

Oh, right. Except for the hair color, Mia was basically Yang and the same went for Summer. Taiyang had seen Ruby’s partner once, and the same going for Blake. Though Raven needed to wear sunglasses due her eye color but, without that, they were the best people to talk to Tai. Speaking about the girls’ parents, Qrow had a few questions about what they will do after Salem’s defeat but, right now, he was wondering what Yang and Ruby were doing.

Meanwhile with Pyrrha…

“You two should have seen it.” Nora said. “Those girls were identical to Yang and Weiss. Their hair color was different, but their faces and body forms were the same. However, the reddish-white one looked friendlier than Weiss.”

“Hey!”

Both teams, RWBY and JNPR, were in Pyrrha’s room and having a nice and touching reunion. Well, they were until Nora mentioned Mia and Silver. That made Pyrrha comment about how two girls, who looked like Ruby and Blake, respectively, had helped her a month ago. Summer and Raven were the only people who came to team RWBY minds when they heard that, but neither said anything about it. In first place, no one knew where team SSMR was and, second, they were a little shocked because neither Summer nor Raven had mentioned anything about it. Nora continued talking about Mia and Silver, and the incredible resemblance that they have with Yang and Weiss.

“Nora.” Weiss said, she sounded angry for some reason. “That reddish-white haired girl has a name, and it’s Silver. Remember it.”

“And the other girl has a name too, it’s Mia. Please be sure to remember it as well.” Blake said.

“O-ok, _but why do you two sound so angry?_ ” She turned to see Ruby and Yang and, to her surprise, they looked angry too. _“Those descriptors were just because I didn’t know the girls’ names!”_

.

.

.

“That was close.” Yang said to herself.

She had run away when everyone started asking about her arm. She didn’t know if she could even talk about the prosthesis, it seemed it should be a huge secret. So, she decided to search for Raven or Summer to ask what she should say about her arm but, continuing her bad luck since got back from Beacon, team SSMR was missing. There weren’t any signs of where they could be either. _“Seriously, where they are?”_ Yang thought while she walked around the building’s corridors. Then she heard her uncle and Summer’s voices coming out of a room, but she couldn’t open the door, it was locked. So she put her ear to the door so she was able to listen. Why Summer was talking to Qrow? Since when she know him?

“At what time tomorrow?” Qrow asked.

“Five in the morning.” Summer answered.

“That’s too early!!!”

Yang was even more surprised when she hear Mia’s voice. She could also hear Glynda’s voice too. What was happening?

“By the way.” Summer said. “James call Winter, Raven and Mia are going to use our ship, so we need another one.”

“Why do you want the Ice Queen here?”

“One, she trusts in James, and vice versa. Two, she must be angry with Weiss, so we can use Silver, she can handle the scolding.”

“You’re going to use your sister as a sacrifice?” This time it was Ozpin’s voice.

“She offered herself to do it! Don’t took me as though I am a bad big sister.”

Ships? Five of the morning? Weiss’ sister scolding Silver? Yang had a lot of questions in her head but, before she could continue listening to the conversation, she heard Mia say, “I’m going to the bathroom.” Then the door opened. Luckily, Yang had backed herself away from the door so she didn’t fall, but that didn’t change the fact that Mia saw her. The black-haired girl barely could say, “What are you doing?” because Yang covered her mouth and pulled her down the hallway. The door closed loudly thanks to that but, knowing Mia’s normal attitude, everyone that was in the room didn’t think anything about it.

“Where are you and the others gonna go? And I won’t accept “Classified” as an answer.” Yang asked. She didn’t know why she was doing this, but she felt that if she did not, there was the possibility that maybe she wouldn’t get to see Raven or Mia again. To her surprise, Mia didn’t show a single sign either fear or distress. It was totally the opposite, she looked happy “Why are you making a happy face?”

At this point, Mia was thinking that a family trip didn’t sound bad. Silver would probably agree with her if she brought it up, but Summer and Raven would get angry. But that wasn’t anything that she couldn’t handle.

.

.

.

Summer and Raven found it really strange how, at the 4:40 a.m, Silver and Mia were totally awake with big smiles on their faces. Neither of them were exactly what you would call a morning person. The younger sister’s were planning something, but they didn’t care at that moment. Raven and Mia said, “Bye” while they began to walk to the place where they had left their ship. In a normal ship, the trip from Vale to Atlas and from Vale to Mistral took four hours each, but Summer, Silver, and James, who was holding Roman and Neo, were using an army ship. That ship was faster, so their travel time was reduced by about an hour. So, according to Summer, Team 1 should arrive to Atlas at 8 o´clock and team 2 at 9. Well, only if Mia wasn’t the one in flying the ship.

“By the way, why we need to leave this early?” James asked.

“Because we don’t want our parents see us leave.” Summer said. “Also, it’s better if we are in Atlas before Roman wakes up. I mean, knowing the the possibility of a last minute “I won’t go.” is very high. Before I forget, when you see your bosses, tell them that you were searching for Roman and Neo. That is a good reason for why you didn’t return.”

Summer and Raven acted very friendly with Neo mere hours ago but, right now, James didn’t want to ask about what kind of relationship Roman and Neo had with team SSMR in the future. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t ask because he saw an Atlas army ship landing in front of him and the girls.

“Young auntie Winter.” Silver said, excited.

“Remember, don’t call her auntie.” Summer said.

The three heard the ship door begin to open. James and Summer’s faces were completely stoic, on the other hand, Silver was nervous. Not because she was going to get to see her aunt, but because of what she was about to do in a few moments, She turn to look at her sister and said, “Summer… please forgive me for this.” Before she could even hear a reply from her sister, she used her semblance. In a matter of seconds, she was back with Ruby and Weiss. Summer’s face didn’t show any emotion, but James looked a little shocked. He was going to say something but, before she could do it…

“Weiss!” That was Winter’s voice.

Someone could say that she had lost her cool as she was hugging her sister and a few tears were coming out of her eyes. No one could blame her though, Weiss was missing for a whole month and the only thing that Winter knew about it was what Ironwood had said to her. He told her that Weiss had decided to stay in Vale. Or, in other words, what Future Winter told him to say. For James it was strange seeing Winter acting no-so-Winterlike. It was touching for Ruby and Silver to see beautiful sisters moment and Summer just looked at her little sister.

“Sis…” Weiss said softly, but suddenly she felt the hug finish and when she saw Winter’s face… she laughed with nervousness.

“Can I know why you decided to run away like that?” Winter voice sounded darkly.

“I… well… I can explain it.”

“It was my fault!” Silver cried. “Aun… I mean, Miss Winter. If you want to blame someone, then that someone is me!”

Winter was a little shocked when she saw a short-reddish-white haired version of her little sister, but that feeling suddenly disappear and was replaced by the next thought; “She’s so cute”. Winter felt the urge to hug that girl, but she keep her cool this time. She was in front of her general after all, but that thought didn’t want to leave her head. Things got worse when she saw Summer. For some reason those two unknown girls were the cutest things that she had seen in her whole life, and it made her face a little red.

“Is she ok?” Ruby asked Weiss.

“I… don’t know. I have never see her like this.”

Silver looked to Summer, she was wondering why she hadn’t reprimanded her yet. But, when she saw Summer she could see how she was smiling while she was looking in Ruby and Weiss’ direction. After that a big smile appear in Silver face, it was like Summer wanted a family trip too. Meanwhile, Raven and Mia…

“You can fly the ship, I’ll be in the back. See you when we reach Haven.” Mia said trying to not sound nervous. She knew how angry Raven would get if she knew who was in the back part of the ship, but she heard her twin say, “Wait.”

She began to feel scared. “W-what happened?”

“Here.” Raven said, showing Mia a blanket. “Give this to mama and mom, they must have cold in there.”

A “Eh…” come out of Mia’s mouth and some seconds later she yelled, “What!!!!”

Raven quickly told her to shut up.

“B-but… since when? How do you know… WHY ARE YOU NOT ANGRY WITH ME!?”

“Don’t yell.” Raven said. “Summer and I came here earlier to see if the controls and the fuel were ok and we found mama and dad sleeping in the back. You and Silver have been acting strange since you two woke up. Also, I saw you and Silver talking with mama, dad, and aunties Ruby and Weiss. We are sisters, you really believe that I won’t notice something.”

“But why you are not angry? Why didn’t try to get mama and dad back into the building?”

Raven didn’t answer, but Mia saw how her face was blushed. Mia smiled while she let go an “Eh…” This was one of the few times that she ever saw her sister like that.

“You also wanted a family trip.” Mia said.

“Shut up”

“Why you didn’t say so? You are so shy, Raven.”

“Shut up and go into the ship…” This time Raven sounded angry and she look at her sister with her angry red-eyes.“Now.”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

Mia had just remembered why she never teases her sister with things like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Winter had discover her weakness, Summer and Raven are to shy, Mia had remember why she never bother her sister with something, Silver is to cute, Silver and Mia just want to spend more time with their parents and no one of you know how badly I had wanted to write the next chapter, the next chapters rather, but please be patients, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	15. Of Vale to Atlas and of Vale to Mistral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, it’s time to see how everybody are doing in their respectively trips, as always, enjoy.

_“Oh dear Oum, please tell me… WHAT DID I DO TO YOU!?”_

Ruby felt that her luck couldn’t be any worse. First, she was in a ship with Roman and Neo, who she believed had died, or disappeared, respectively. Second, of all the seats in the ship, of all the possible combinations that they could have done, why did Winter have to be seated next to her!?

There were exactly eight seats divided into two groups. Weiss was sitting in a seat in the left group looking out the window. Next to her was an unconscious Neo and, behind them, were James and Roman. In the right grouping, Summer and Silver were seated behind Ruby and Winter. Silver was sleeping and Summer was looking out the window like Weiss. Ruby couldn’t stop asking to herself how and why they ended up like that.

 _“What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?”_ Ruby mind was totally filled with that repeating question. She hadn’t expected this situation, but she could at least try to say “Hi” or something like that. _“Wait!!! What do I call her!? Just Winter? Miss Winter? Miss Schnee? Weiss’ sister!? Wait... that last one sounds disrespectful. After that what should I do? Introduce myself? But how? “Hi, I’m Ruby Rose” or “Hi, I’m your sister’s partner” or just “Hi, nice to meet you”? I also need a theme for the conversation, but what kind of theme!? Just because she is Weiss’s sister doesn’t mean that she likes the same things as her. She is also a member of the Atlas army, I don’t want her to think that I am a weirdo…”_

“Excuse me.” Winter suddenly said. “Your name is Ruby Rose, right?”

“Y-yes!!! Ruby Rose, fifteen years old, I use to study in Signal until a certain incident allowed me enter Beacon two years early. I love cookies and fairy tales, I’m Weiss’s partner and team RWBY leader, nice to meet you!!!”

Silence…

Ruby’s face suddenly changed to red when she realized that she ended up doing the first thing that she didn’t want to do and come off as a weird person. Ruby was so embarrassed.

“Thank you for the information, but I already knew that.”

“R-really?” Ruby said feeling a little relief in her chest. The way Winter had responded was like she didn’t think anything bad about her. “Well, I should have known it. I mean you and Weiss talked after your fight with uncle Qr…”

Ruby wasn’t able to finish the sentence because she felt a dark aura coming out of Winter’s body. She didn’t know why, but for some reason Winter couldn’t even stand tohear Qrow’s name. This made Ruby wonder what could have happened between them in the past but, if she wanted to have a nice conversation, she couldn’t mention about Qrow. So, Ruby decided to change the theme.

“Y-you had something to ask me a few seconds ago, right?” Ruby wasn’t sure if that was true, but it was the only thing that she was able to think up at that moment.

“Oh, yeah. It is about the girls behind us.”

Ruby turned to look at Summer and Silver. Silver was still asleep on her sister’s shoulder and, at some point, Summer had fallen asleep too. Ruby saw how Winter was watching at the girls and Ruby was able to notice a little blush on her face. She also heard the sentence “They’re soo cute.” In fact, it was like having deja vu of the day when Weiss met Zwei.

“Can you tell me what you know about them?”

Well, Silver had said that she was the one responsible behind Weiss’s disappearance. Plus, for what they had noticed before getting on the ship, was that Summer somehow knew Ironwood, Roman, and Neo. I made sense that Winter had enough reasons to ask that question.

“Well, in the month that we were together, they didn’t speak much about themselves. I just know that they are sisters, Summer and Silver Rosch, fifteen and fourteen respectively, and members of team SSMR together with their cousins Mia and Raven Xiabon. They were born in Vale, but moved to Atlas when they were seven and six. I don’t know what Summer’s semblance or weapon is. Silver’s semblance is “super-speed” and her weapon is a red sword with shotgun function. It’s pretty cool by the way.”

“Anything else?”

Ruby didn’t know if it was a good idea mention that Summer and Silver parents were both women, but she decided to not say anything about it and, instead of that, she said that their parents had died six years ago. They, together with Raven and Mia, were raised by their aunt and great-uncle. Winter sighed once Ruby told her that she didn’t know anything else about Summer or Silver.

“I know that growing up without one of your parents is hard, but losing two must be horrible.” Winter said looking at Summer and Silver. “They must have had some hard times.”

Ruby just said “Yeah” without thinking much about what Winter had said. They were surrounded by silence for some seconds until Ruby realized the meaning of Winter’s words. “ _I know that growing up without one of your parents is hard.”_ Weiss never talked about her family but, at least Ruby knew that she had a sister and a father. Winter must have noticed Ruby’s facial expression because, before the silver-eyed girl could say something, Winter began to talk.

“Knowing Weiss, I guess that she never talked about her family. Am I right?”

“Well, yes… but if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.” Ruby said feeling that she was going to hear Weiss’s family story without her permission.

“I insist. You are Weiss’s partner and her team’s leader.” Those word made Ruby realize that she didn’t have any other option than to continue listening. “Our mother’s name was Ginko Schnee.”

“Ginko?” Ruby said curiously, she have never heard a name like that before.

“I never was sure about which language it came from, but I knew that my mother’s name meant “Silver kid” and...” Winter paused and took a deep breath of air before continuing. “Sadly, she died shortly after Weiss’s birth. Due to our father’s personality, it is hard to know what he is thinking or feeling, and the day that our mother died… that was the first and last time I saw him cry. I suppose that you know about the difficult relationship between Weiss and our father.”

 _“I’m sorry.”_ Was everything that Ruby could say after hearing that and quickly she turn to look at Weiss. A long time ago Ruby had found it strange how Weiss occasionally talked about her sister, or mentioned something about her father, but she never talked about her mother. Now she finally knew the answer. Of course, Ruby had lost her mother too, but that was very different. Summer Rose died when Ruby had been four, so at least she had some memories of her, but Weiss’s mom died when she was still a baby. That meant that Weiss didn’t have a single memory of her. Thinking about that was painful, and Ruby couldn’t feel any more guilty for making Winter talk about something so terrible.

Ruby began to look out the window beside her and remembered the moment in which she, and the others, had decided to accompany Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven on their respective missions. As far a she knew, Yang had heard that team SSMR was leaving Vale by accident and that Mia was more than happy to share the information. Together with Silver, they talked about what they had planned to do. Weiss insisted on going with Summer and Silver once she knew that the girls’ destination was Atlas, saying that she needed to talk to her father about an issue of the Schnee Dust Company. Once Yang heard that Raven and Mia’s destination was the Haven academy in the Kingdom of Mistral, she didn’t even think twice before saying “I’ll go with you!” Then they made their plan. Yang and Blake would sleep on the ship that Raven and Mia were planning on using, and Silver would use her semblance to grab Ruby and Weiss before the ship that they would use to get to Atlas arrived.

And now there she was, in an army ship whose destination was Atlas, without knowing anything about Summer and Silver’s mission. Sitting next to her partner’s big sister… wait a minute, she was sitting next to Weiss’s BIG sister and Weiss had said that she was the heir of the SDC. Why Weiss and not Winter? Ruby knew that a heir is usually the eldest child of a family and not the youngest. Why did she not notice it until now!?

“Winter.” Ruby suddenly said.

“What do you need?”

“I need to ask you something, it’s urgent.”

.

.

.

When Yang woke up, although she was lying on a steel floor, she found herself pretty comfortable. She was covered with a blanket and Mia was sleeping peacefully between her and Blake. She sat up in a position in which her right arm was supporting her head and she began watch Mia. It was like seeing herself sleeping but, instead of feeling weird about it, Yang felt a warm feeling in her chest thanks to Mia. She didn’t know why, but seeing Mia like that made her feel calm.

“So you’re awake.”

Who knows how long Blake had been awake, but she was doing the same as Yang, looking at Mia’s peaceful, sleeping face. They stayed like that for several minutes without saying a word and just watching Mia.

“I feel like a stalker.” Blake suddenly said, feeling that watching the sleeping face of a girl whom she meet a month ago couldn’t be normal.

“How curious, I was thinking the same thing.” Yang said while she began to pet Mia’s hair, being careful to not wake up her. “But, call me weird, crazy, or whatever you want, since I met Raven and Mia I began to feel a kind of connection with them. Something like a special bond. It’s curious because I basically don’t know much about them.”

Blake said nothing and she just looked at Mia. What Yang had said was something that she had been thinking too. The first moment that she met Mia she began to felt a sort of special connection with her as well. That feeling was repeated the moment when she saw Raven. It was a strange, but warm, feeling.

“Yang, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot, kittie.”

“Why do you agree so quickly when Mia said that her mission was in Mistral?”

After hearing that Yang stopped petting Mia’s hair. She just let her hand rest on the girl’s head as she sighed and turn to look Blake right in the eyes.

“Because, the last time that someone I knew went on a mission in the Mistral kingdom, and the Haven academy was involved, that person never came back. I won’t let the same thing happen twice.”

Again, Blake said nothing. She felt that Yang was talking about her adoptive mother, so she didn’t want to make her talk about it. Mia was still asleep and Blake was feeling as though she was watching Yang. It wasn’t like that was the first time that she felt that, Mia’s personality was like Yang’s, but Blake could see something of her own personality in Mia as well. In Raven case it was the opposite. It was a strange, but nice feeling, though Blake began to feel that she was being observed.

“Do I have something on my face?” She asked Yang.

“No. I just was thinking that, without that bow, you would look just like Raven.”

Okay, Raven was a cat-faunus like Blake but Ruby had been the only one to see her without her bow. Blake knew what Yang was after.

“I’m not going to show you my ears.” Blake said.

“But Ruby already saw them. That’s not fair, aren’t we friends?”

“Being friends doesn’t have anything to do with that. Ruby only saw them because at that moment I didn’t have any other option but to take off my bow.”

Blake sighed when she saw how Yang was making puppy-eyes at her to try to convince her to take off the bow.

“Yang, listen. You are my friend, and I trust you, but I need time to show my faunus ears to other people.” Yang looked sad after hearing that, “Okay, what about this. I’ll show you my ears first when I think it is time.”

“I know that I won’t be able to convince you to do the opposite. So, Okay!” Yang said, sounding a little sad while she continued petting Mia’s head. “Speaking of Raven, I wonder what’s she doing?”

.

.

.

_“Those girls. Why do they think they can do whatever they want without saying a single word!?”_

Raven sighed and wondered why she had decided to call Qrow… oh yeah, it was because someone needed to know what Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang had decided to do. She didn’t have either Glynda’s or Ozpin’s scroll numbers. Raven’s scroll was using the loudspeaker function.

“Calm down, Grunkle. I promise that we’ll take good care of them.”

_“But your part of the mission…”_

“Mia’s part isn’t that dangerous. I’ll try to convince Blake and Yang to go with her. I can take care of myself.”

 _“If you say so.”_ There was silence and suddenly he said. _“Can I ask you something?”_

“Shoot.” Raven answered “Though, I suggest you to be quick, I can lose the signal at any moment.”

_“About Exitium and Salem. Why did he transform his other soul into a woman? I don’t believe that Salem just stayed that way because she hadn’t had the time to turn into something else.”_

“Well the video that you saw, Future-Ozpin said that because they had time limit of what they could record. To answer your question, you know the story of Adam and Eve, right? After destroying humanity the world would have to be repopulated somehow.”

_“He had planned to do it with himself! Ha! What a loser. Okay, second and last question. If you four know how to defeat Exitum, why do you want to defeat him here in the past and not in the future?”_

Raven wonder why her grunkle had decided to wait to ask that until now, but it was a question which needed an answer. Raven told him that, in the future, Exitium’s power was at  highest. When he first awoke his power was only about half until he stole the maidens’ powers that Raven Branwen had stolen.

_“Give me a better explanation.”_

“When Exitium was the hermit he give the maidens a little part of his powers. Because of that he isn’t at 100% of his strength. The fact that Cinder Fall became the autumn Maiden is part of Salem’s plan. The next step was transform Emerald in the Spring Maiden and Neo into the Winter Maiden. When Roman heard about that he got angry, that was the reason why he and Neo betrayed Salem and Cinder. Once the new maidens where in Salem’s group she just needed to wait until someone killed them. Also, what is the point of living in a world without our parents?”

_“What you say is interesting and everything, but what about the Summer Maiden?”_

“Grunkle… I think that you should talk with Ozpin about that. I will not blame you if I hear that you hit him.”

Before Qrow could say “What do you mean?” Raven began to hear static on her scroll, then nothing. The signal had been lost. She sighed, sending her best wishes to Ozpin because she knew that Qrow was going hit him more than once after hearing the truth about the summer Maiden. She also began to become frustrated with the ship for not have the autopilot function, she also wanted to be with her parents right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry Raven you will get time to be with your parents, well the next chapter is for the Rose-Schnee family, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo


	16. The Atlas mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here is the Atlas mission (a.k.a the Rose-Schnee family chapter) as always, enjoy it.

**December 2nd**

**8:10 a.m**

**Entrance of the Atlas army base.**

“You know what?” Roman began to say. “I changed my mind, I don’t want to do this.”

“Too bad for you.” Summer said “You can not back out of this now. You have a possible life sentence to think about too.”

Summer, Silver, Ironwood, Roman, and Neo were the only ones who got off of the ship. Winter had insisted on accompanying Ironwood but, luckily, he was able to convince her to stay with the ship. Silver said that she had a task to do in the army’s laboratory and James decided against asking anything about it knowing those girls would just say “Classifed.” Summer then handed something to James, it was an USB with the evidence of what had really happened during the fall of Beacon. While Summer didn’t doubt that Roman would give an accurate account of events, the USB was there “Just in case” as there was always the possibility that James’s bosses didn’t believe what Roman told them.

“Before I totally forget.” Summer said as she looked at Neo. “Raven told me about the sign language lesson and that, sadly, she won’t be able to keep her promise. Because of that, she give me this book. You can easily learn sign language with it, read it when you have some time.”

Summer put the book in Neo’s pants pocket. Neo smiled and Roman again told her to not be friendly with the enemy. After that James asked why Summer was so friendly with Roman and Neo. She whispered the answer in his ear; that something had happened and they ended up helping him get out of jail in the future. Of course, in the beginning, nobody believed what Roman had said until he was able to present evidence. Future James was so grateful with them that he even took them as assistants. Ironwood was a little surprised after hearing that. So, he owed Roman one in the future. The next thing that Summer did was look at her little sister.

“Okay, Silver. You know what to do.” She said while she placed her right hand on Silver’s shoulder. “I believe in you.”

“Yes.” Silver said with a big smile on her face. “Leave everything in my hands.”

“By the way, what do you have to do in the laboratory?” James asked.

“A special request of Professor Polendina’s futureself.” She had whispered the last word.

After that, Summer boarded the ship again. Now, the next destination was the SDC. After completing her mission, Silver will go to the SDC as well. Getting there and passing security wasn’t a problem, thanks to her semblance. Once the door of the base began to be open, Silver wished James good luck before she disappeared right in front of his eyes. “Her semblance look pretty useful.” James thought before entering the base.

Silver’s mission was easy. She just needed to go to the laboratory, Professor Polendina’s office for be more specific, and connect an USB to the computer. In other words, pass very important information to Professor Polendina’s computer, and that information was Penny’s memories.

Penny had been designed to delete all her memories if she suffered a large amount or deadly damage. But, Professor Polendina gave her an ability to save her memories in the deepest parts of her hardware. Sadly, in the bad time-line, Penny’s body was destroyed by the army before Professor Polendina could retrieve her memories. That was the reason of why he never built another android and the future Professor Polendina made a USB with the ability of retrieving Penny’s memories from her hardware. He gave it to Silver and she used it shortly after her arrival to the past. The army had taken Penny’s body during the evacuation, so she just need to leave the memories filed in the computer and mission accomplished.

 _“Okay, nobody's here.”_ She thought, looking into the office. It was almost the nine o’clock so she know that the professor should be eating his breakfast elsewhere.

Silver turned on the computer, she already know the password. Then she inserted the USB and began to upload the field. The procedure only took a few seconds and that was all. Silver’s mission was completed, she removed the USB and said to herself, “That was easy.” until…

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

Silver’s body completely froze after she heard that voice. Breathing deep, she quickly turned around to see the owner of the voice; short, a little fat, bald. Silver remembered him with a white beard instead of an orange one, but there were no doubt, he was Professor Polendina.

Silver’s body began to tremble while she moved away from the computer. She never considered the possibility that Professor Polendina would decide to skip breakfast. The only thing that came out of Silver’s mouth was “I… I…” She suddenly stepped away from the desk when the professor began investigate what Silver had been doing. “T-this is…” When Silver heard that she knew that is was time to lie a little.

“I-I’m very sorry!” She suddenly cried “I-I was one of the first people who Penny met and she confessed to me that she was an Android. When the Vytal tournament started I began to feel that something bad was going to happen to Penny. So, I asked my cousin, who is a genius in robotics, to build a special USB with the ability of save Penny’s memories in case something ended up happening to her. I believed that is was time to give you the files, so General James Ironwood helped me to reach this place. B-but if this bothers you in some way you can just delete the files.”

Silver was still shaking and she felt that she would begin to cry at any moment, but any fear that she could feel in that moment suddenly disappeared. The professor had began to hug her and Silver was able to feel tears fall onto her shoulder. She kept hearing him utter the words “Thank you” and then the embrace stopped.

“What’s your name? What can I do to repay you for this?” The professor asked while he wiped away his tears. Now he could rebuild Penny and she would be the same. The same personality and same memories; he could not be more grateful to Silver.

“T-the name doesn’t matter. But, if you want to repay me, then…” Silver took a piece of paper out of her pocket and began to write something in it. Once she finished, she gave the paper to the professor. “When you rebuild Penny, please call this number. This person was Penny’s first friend, and I’m sure that she will be happy to hear that Penny is fine.”

“Okay. Is there anything else that I can do for you?”

“Well, Penny told me that she wanted to study at Beacon. So, if you can do something about that I’ll be very grateful. And…” Silver turned to look the professor right in the eye. “I was never was here, you never saw me or talked to me. The only person who knows that I’m here is James Ironwood, and I don’t want to cause him more problems. Also, if in the future you meet a girl with black hair and purple eyes, please teach her about robotics and how to build, rebuild, and fix things.”

“O-okay?” Professor Polendina said, feeling that the last request was a little strange. He saw how Silver went to the office’s door and, before she could leave, he asked. “We will meet again?”

Silver smile and before disappearing, she said the next.

“In the future… I’m sure that we will meet again in the future.”

.

.

.

**Schnee Dust Company (SDC)**

**9:30 a.m**

Getting into the SDC wasn’t a problem for Winter and Weiss. Every single employee knew the boss’s daughters. It was a little difficult for Ruby and Summer, but nothing that they couldn’t solve. Having to leave their weapons in the entrance, they went into the building as well. Now they were outside of the boss’s office. Weiss was directly in front of the door, while Winter, Ruby, and Summer were off to the side, having decided to wait outside while Weiss talked to her father. Weiss was gathering courage for knock on the door and she began to remember the last time that she talked to her father in his office. That was the day that she asked him about going to study at Beacon.

Her father’s original plan was have her study at the Atlas academy and get her out of there before graduation. That way Weiss would not have any duty or commitment with the huntsman’s organization. After that, he planned to make her work in the SDC as a secretary until she was the right age to become the new boss. That had been the plan for Winter too, but she joined the army before graduation and her father wasn’t able to do anything about it. With Winter’s help, Weiss was able to take the entrance exam to Beacon, but the hard part was telling to her father about her wish of study outside Atlas.

_“Can I know, why Beacon?” Her father had asked her._

_“Besides Atlas academy, Beacon is the more prestigious academy in the kingdoms.”_

_“You don’t get it.” Mr. Schnee sighed. “I mean, **Why** don’t you want to study here?”_

_The truth was that, if she wasn’t even going to be able to participate in the graduation and then have to work as a secretary, at least she wanted to spend her four years of freedom as far away from Atlas as possible. Of course, she couldn’t say that._

_“I think that spending some time in an other kingdom will improve my ability to deal with people from differents places. That is something that will help me in the future when I become the Company’s boss. Winter helped me take the entrance exam and I pass with honors. The headmaster, Ozpin, is waiting for your approval.”_

_“I see, **she** helped you?” Weiss bit her lip. She hated when her father referred to her sister in that way. “Well, if you already took the exam, it seems that I don’t have any other option.”_

_Weiss couldn’t believe what she had heard. That had been very easy, or at least that’s what she thought._

_“I’ll let you go to Beacon, but with one condition.” Hearing that made Weiss sigh. She should have expected that. “If I wish it, I can take you out of that academy whenever I want, get it?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“Okay, then I hope that you do not go to do the same thing as your sister just because I accepted your request.”_

_“Don’t worry father, I won’t do it.”_

.

.

.

“Why is she not knocking on the door?” Ruby asked Winter.

“Give her some time. Remember that neither of us have a good relationship with our father.”

Summer was leaning on the wall, listening to what her mum and auntie were saying. In the future, Mr. Schnee was a little different. He still have a hard personality and he preferred to be called “Grandfather” instead of “Grandpa”, but at least his relationship with his daughters had improved. But, right now, Summer was in the past and not the future, so the grandfather that she knew and the person who was inside that office were different people. There were a few seconds of silence before Weiss finally knocked on the office’s door. Without hearing any voice, the door just opened. Even though Winter, Ruby, and Summer had decided to not enter, they could still hear what was going on in there.

“So, you finally came back.” Mr. Schnee said without even take off his eyes of the papers that he was checking.

“Yes, and I wanted to apologize for having you worried all of November.”

She heard a “Hmm…” Then her father began to look her right in the eyes and, by pure reflex, Weiss looked in another direction. She really didn’t want to see her father’s cold eyes at that moment.

“You’ve changed Weiss, in a very **_bad_** way.” Oh no. Weiss already knew what would happen and it wouldn’t be nice. “You didn’t answer my calls, you didn’t want to leave Vale, you used one of your _friends—_ if you can call that reddish white haired girl that—to escape for me. Then you spend a whole month in who-knows-where. You weren’t like that when you left Atlas.”

Weiss wanted to say something in her defense, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t. The words would not come out of her mouth.

“I made up my mind, Weiss. I will not let you return to Vale, you wonn’t return to Beacon. I don’t care if you are only 17 years old. You’ll start working here under my supervision. I’ll let Beacon’s headmaster, Ozpin, know that Miss Weiss Schnee won’t return to the school. Don’t worry about your things, I’ll send someone to collect them.”

Weiss could feel her eyes begin to water. She want to say something, but she still couldn’t. She felt that an invisible ball of air was stuck in her throat, preventing her to uttering a single word. That was all? She had returned to Atlas just for that? She wasn’t even able to give her opinion about it… no. She would not accept it. She did not want to return to Atlas, she did not want to leave Vale, she wanted to continue studying at Beacon. She didn’t want to leave Blake and Yang… she didn’t want to leave Ruby. She felt the ball in her throat disappear, she was ready to say what she wanted to…

“Can you just shut up!?”

Ruby had entered to the room. She hit Mr. Schnee’s desk with her right hand. She was angry, very angry. Winter had tried to stop her but, using her semblance, Ruby was able to escape from her. Summer was smiling that Ruby was still the mum that she knew.

“Who are you?” Weiss’s dad said, trying to keep his cool.

“Ruby Rose, 15 years-old, student of Beacon, Team RWBY’s leader AND Weiss’s partner.”

“So, you are Weiss’s team leader.” Mr. Schnee said. He sounded very calm. “Then I hope you've heard everything I said and let Beacon’s headmaster know about…”

“Didn’t you hear what I said!? Shut up!” Ruby yelled. Mr. Schnee, Weiss, and Winter were surprised, no one had dared to speak in that way to the CEO. “Winter told me why Weiss is this Company heir, Seriously!? You disinherit Winter just because she decide to join to the army? She wanted to do that, it was her dream, so… why would you disinherit her just for that!? Furthermore, you stopped to talking to her. What kind of father are you!?”

“And what kind of kid are you?” Mr. Schnee said, he had risen from his chair. “Talking to me in that way. Who do you think you are?”

“Weiss’s friend.” Ruby said. “And I am very sure that I know her better than you.”

“Ruby.” Weiss said. “Please stop, this isn’t your problem.”

“But Weiss! Are you really going to accept what your father said without even trying to defend yourself!? Do you really want to leave Beacon? Do you really want to leave Vale? Yang, Blake, Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, Ren, you really want to leave them too? Do you really want to leave…” Some tears come out of her eyes and her voice sounded broken “ ** _Me?_** ”

Weiss sighed and she put her hands on Ruby’s shoulders. “Don’t cry.” She said, she felt a little more brave now that Ruby was helping her. Weiss took a breath of air before she turning to look at her father.

“Sorry, father. But I don’t agree with you. Between Atlas and Vale, I prefer Vale. And I swear that I won’t leave my friends just because you tell me to. Disinherit me if you want, I don’t care about that anymore.” She sighed, the next words that she was going to say were something that she realized at some point while she was at Beacon. “I always look for your acceptance and I always wanted you to feel proud of me. I was trying to live up to the idea of being the SDC’s heir, but now I realize that everything can go _fuck_ itself. _”_

Mr. Schnee, Ruby, and Winter opened their mouths. Summer giggled, that was one of the few time when she had heard Weiss say a bad word.

“Now.” Weiss said. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a place I want to get back to. Let’s go, Ruby.”

“Eh... I mean, Yes!” She said, following her partner out of the office. “See you next time, Weiss’s dad.”

As soon as they were out of the office, Weiss took Ruby and Summer by the arms and made them run away from there together with her. Weiss had never opposed her father’s word before so, at that moment, she was a little scared. The sooner that she left the SDC the quicker she would feel better. When Winter saw her sister run away she just smiled. She went to follow her but, before she could move one of her feet, she heard her father’s voice.

“Wait a minute, Winter.”

 _“So, he knew that I was here.”_ She thought, but she didn’t enter to the office “What do you want?”

“Weiss has changed” He said, then Winter heard a little laugh. “I don’t even know what to think about it.”

“I can’t can’t help you with that.” She said while she began to walk away. “But if mom were alive… I’m sure that she will told you _“Feel proud of her. Our daughter has found what she really wants to do.”_ Well, see you next time, Father.”

And just like that, Winter left to follow Weiss.

.

.

.

**Outside of the SDC**

**10: 45 a.m**

“I saw my life pass in front of my eyes!” Weiss said, remembering the moment when she confronted her father. She had never felt so scared.

“Come on, Weiss! You told him what you really wanted.” Ruby said happily. One, because Weiss didn’t have to return to Atlas anymore and, two, she had got Crescent Rose back from security.

Winter asked Summer if everything that happened had been part of her plan. Summer confessed that her original idea was that, instead of Weiss and Ruby, she would be the one who would have spoken with Weiss’s dad. But Summer quickly said that everything ended up much better as she had originally thought it would have. Summer then received a message from Ironwood. Luckily, James’s bosses believed what Roman told them and now they were checking the USB that Summer had given him. The girl smiled, now she only needed to wait for a call from Mia or Raven. Suddenly, Silver made an appearance in front of everyone. Winter freaked out a little, but then she remember that Ruby told her about Silver’s super-speed.

“My mission was completed successfully.” Silver informed them. “Reward me with a pat on my head!”

“Wanna do it, Winter.” Summer said.

Winter felt her cheeks turn red, but she didn’t turn down Summer. Her hand was shaking as she approached Silver’s reddish-white hair. “So fluffy and soft.” Winter thought while she petted Silver’s head. She really didn’t know why, but she felt a huge connection with Summer and Silver. Plus, from her point of view, the girls were two of the cutest people that she had seen.

 _“Auntie never changes.”_ Silver thought happily.

Weiss could focus her attention on the strange way that Winter acted when ever Summer and Silver were around her but, instead of that, Weiss’s attention was focused on Ruby. There was strange feeling that she was feeling in her chest. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, it was the opposite. It was warm and nice and she didn’t know since when she had began to feel that whenever Ruby was around her. Since she met Summer and Silver, that feeling had grown more and more. Never in all her life had she felt that way. Could it be lov… no, no, no, and more no. Just… no. But, she had never fallen in love before, and that feeling in her chest only appeared when Ruby was near her. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by Summer’s voice.

“Mia! Mia! Please calm down! What happened?”

Nobody noticed the moment that Mia had called Summer, but the tone of Summer’s voice meant that what Mia was telling her was serious. Then Summer dropped her Scroll and fell to her knees on the floor. Tears were coming out of her eyes followed by the sentence. “No way…”

“S-sis.” Silver said nervously. “W-what happened?”

“Raven…” Summer whispered while more tears flowed from her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I have mentioned how much I love cliffhanger? Well, next time everyone will be able to figured out what happen, so please be patient, the Xiao Long-Belladonna family chapter will be done as soon as possible, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed the chapter, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	17. The Mistral mission and something else

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m still alive!!! Sorry for the long wait but Ilax had been busy and his time for edit has been very limited, but here is the chapter.
> 
> And I’m going to be honest about something, this chapter have a battle and I’m suck writing battles, but as a friend of mine will say “A least you try it”, now we can start.

**December 2nd**

**9: 15 p.m**

**Outskirts of the Heaven academy**

“Is this correct?” Blake asked.

It wasn’t until they reached Mistral that Blake and Yang found out about the details of Mia and Raven’s mission. They were to infiltrate Haven in order to search for someone. At least, that was what Mia said her mission was, Raven didn’t say anything about her mission.

“Don’t worry!” Mia said. “We’ll be fine… as long as nobody sees us.”

Although, since the attack on Beacon, classes had been cancelled at all of the academies, some students were using the school facilities as personal training fields. That was the reason why Raven landed the ship several kilometers away from Haven, but students coming to the school wasn’t something that bothered Mia. Most of the students arrived to the school to start with their training at around 10 o’clock, so time wasn’t even a problem.

“Okay, I’m leaving.” Raven said “Mia you already know what to do. Yang and Blake, if something happens, please help Mia”

“Sis, please try to trust more in me.”

“Wait.” Yang said. “We don’t even know what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Raven simply said that what she was going to do doesn’t matter at all. And, without saying another word, she left. Both Yang and Blake felt the urge to follow her. There were something that made Yang and Blake feel worried about Raven, something about her mission was not sitting right with them. The problem was that neither of them wanted to leave Mia alone. They didn’t know who the person was that Mia was searching but, even if Mia’s mission wasn’t difficult, they just… didn’t want to leave her. Still, there was Raven.

“If any of you want to follow my sister, then I have an idea.” Mia said. Yang and Blake thought that the preoccupation that they felt must have shown on their faces. “How about this, Blake can help me and Yang can follow Raven.”

“I don’t want to sound rude but, why Yang?” Blake asked.

“Because I know what Raven’s mission is and Yang can help her, a lot.”

Well, if Mia said it, it had to be true. After all, she was talking about something that neither Yang nor Blake know anything about. They waited until Raven’s blonde hair was out of sight before Yang began to follow her, leaving Blake and Mia behind. Mia promised that after completing her work, she and Blake will follow her too. After watching Yang’s blonde hair disappear over the horizon, Mia took Blake’s hand and they walked towards Haven.

Beacon and Haven’s structures weren’t very different from each other. Maybe all the academies had been built with the same plans. The outside, and inside, were almost identical. However, the dorms of Haven academy were inside of the main building instead of an entirely separate building like in Beacon. Beacon’s dining room was also larger than Haven’s but, besides those few things, everything was the same. Mia guided Blake to a place that seemed like a training field, and Blake observed Mia crouch and began to knock the floor. Blake did not dare to ask why she was doing that.

“Here it is!” Mia claimed.

Blake didn’t ask, she just watched how Mia began to remove the floor’s flagstones. Mia picked up and moved around six flagstones and, to Blake’s surprise, she saw a hole in the floor. Mia had been knocking on the floor searching for the place where the floor sounded hollow. A secret chamber was the only thing who Blake could think of that would be beneath a training field and the person Mia was searching must be in that chamber. Mia sat at the edge of the hole ready to jump at any time.

“Do you want me to accompany you?” Blake asked.

“Nah, I can handle it by myself.” Mia said. “I only have two thing to say. If you hear someone is coming here, then leave immediately and, if I don’t return in twenty minutes, then… call Raven.”

Without another word, Mia jumped into the hole.

.

.

.

The last month hadn’t been the best one for Emerald and Mercury. First, Cinder was unconscious and neither of them know when she will awake. Second, since the battle at Beacon, they hadn’t heard anything about Roman or Neo, and third, they were confined to hide in a hidden chamber because Mercury was supposed to remain “hospitalized” due his “wound” in his leg. So, they couldn’t do the same things as the other Heaven’s students who began to use the school as a training field. Also, that place they were hiding in was the only place that they could use without worry of being discovered. Fortunately, there weren’t any problems with Salem because they informed the masked lady, Salem’s “personal assistant”, someone who they didn’t know her real name, what had happened, so they were forgiven.

There they were, the chamber it was big enough to compare it with one of the academy’s classrooms and they were even able to get sneak a bed in there. Right now, Cinder was lying in it. The worse part of the situation was the fact that they had to live with each other throughout the day, every day. Emerald was taking care of Cinder and Mercury was playing with a little red ball, throwing it against the wall and waiting for it to bounce back to him.

“Remind me why we are here and not with Salem.” Mercury said.

“Because Cinder and the masked lady are the only ones who know how to open a portal.” Emerald answered.

“Then, remind me why we need to stay here.”

“Because here is the last place where someone would think to look for us. Also, that masked lady told us to hide in a secret place.”

“Okay, then remind me why I ask you this every day?”

“Because you’re an idiot… Can you stop playing with that damn ball!?”

“What do you expect me to do? I’m bored here! Right now I’m supposed to be hospitalized due my “wounded leg” and I can’t do what every single fucking student is doing right now. At least you can do something, but you don’t want to leave Cinder.”

“What a sad story, but if you stop to think… you two deserved more than that.”

Mercury and Emerald turn to see the owner of that voice, but suddenly they found themselves tied with what appeared to be black threads. Their feet, hands, and even their eyes and mouths were covered with those threads. Mia smiled, that was the reason of why she loved her semblance. It easy to use and very useful. She approached the bed where Cinder was lying. Mia was a little scared even though she know that Cinder will still be unconscious for at least another month or so, but she wasn’t sure if the anesthesia effect was weak or not. Luckily, she had brought one of her anesthesia spray cans. She can always use it on Cinder and leave her unconscious for several months.

She was going to take out the crystal ball from her shorts pocket but, instead of that, she turned to look at Emerald and Mercury. Catching them with her semblance had been easy, suspiciously easy. “What were their respective semblances?” Mia asked herself. Raven had been the one in tell her what to do, that she really needed to cover Emerald eyes when she saw her. She couldn’t remember why though. As far as Mia knew, Mercury could launch something like ice-balls from his feet and yes, she was sure that those ice-balls weren’t a special function of Mercury’s prosthesis. But what was Emerald’s semblance? It was something about being in her field of vision… field of vision… field of vision… shit.

 _“It’s an illusion!”_ Mia thought. Suddenly she felt a great pain in her stomach and it sent her flying in the direction of one of the walls.

After recovering from the blow, she opened her eyes and she saw Mercury was free from her shadow threads. Emerald was still stuck in them, but neither her eyes or mouth were covered, so Mia was in an illusion since she entered to the chamber. She hurried to cover Emerald’s eyes to avoid being caught in an illusion again. “Protect Cinder!” was the only thing Emerald managed to shout before her eyes and mouth were covered by Mia’s shadows.

“So you came for a rematch, Xiao Long?” Mercury said, completely ignoring the words of his partner. “I have a lot of questions for you, but right now I want to know… Why did you dye your hair? I used to believe that both of your eyes could change color and not just one.”

“My surname may be Xiao Long, but I’m not Yang.” Mia said while her bracelets began to transform into gauntlets. “You can think of me as a relative of Yang.”

“I seem to have a charm that attracts fights with brawlers.” Mercury said, stretching his body. “I feel lucky that you came here, I feel like I've spent years without fighting with someone.”

Mia and Mercury remained motionless, neither one of them wanted to make the first move. Mia hadn’t expected a fight, but there was no turning back now. She turned to look at Emerald, of course Mia could fight while she held her, but her mobility will be reduced if she decided to do that. Knowing that, Mia already knew what she would have to do. Mia’s shadow began to move and, when he saw that, Mercury launched himself in Mia’s direction. He tried to kick her right in the face but, to his surprised, his foot connected with some kind of black dome.

“This should be able to entertain him for a while.” Mia said, hearing how Mercury was hitting the dome again and again. Sadly, he didn’t know that Mia’s shadow shield was unbreakable.

She took the anesthesia can and sprayed Emerald with it. Once she was unconscious, Mia used the black bandages on her right arm to tie Emerald’s feet, hands, eyes, and mouth. Now she was no longer a problem. Then Mia freaked out when she hear a “hmm” come out of Cinder’s mouth. Maybe it had been a bodily reflex, but Mia didn’t want to take the risk. She looked at the can in her hand, if she used less of it on Cinder then she would be able to use it on Mercury but…

“I can always knock him unconscious with a good punch in his face.” Mia said to herself while she opened the can.

Mercury stopped hitting the black dome once he realized that it didn’t matter what he did, he wouldn’t be able to break it. “Interesting” he said to himself, and wondered what kind of semblance Mia had. Then the dome became a shadow and Mia reappeared. She was cracking her knuckles, and he felt relieved once she saw that Mia had taken care of Emerald, now nobody could interrupt.

Without a single word, the fight started. Mia was able to block Mercury’s flurry of kicks and he managed to dodge her retaliatory punches. Mia knew that her opponent feet were prothetic, so if she could catch and destroy one of them, she would win. But it seemed that Mercury was able to predict her tactics because, when Mia tried to catch one of his feet with her shadows, he simply dodged it, again, again and again. That made Mia remember why she hated fighting after someone had seen what her semblance could do. Without the surprise factor, and if someone paid attention to the floor, he or she could see where the shadows were.

Mercury was able to get in another hit to Mia’s stomach but, before he could disengage from her, Mia managed to grab his leg and she threw Mercury into the wall in front of her. He wiped a few drops of blood that were dripping from his mouth. Mia had let him hit her on purpose. Mercury then began to shoot ice-balls from his right foot and Mia focused her energy on dodging them, how she wish that her gauntlets could launch fire-balls. Suddenly, Mia thought about Raven, she didn’t know how her twin was doing  right now. What if she and Yang got into a serious problem as they fought with Salem?

That thought make Mia realize that she needed to immobilize Mercury as soon as possible and a very good plan came to Mia’s mind.

“Don’t tell me that you’re already tired.” Mercury taunted. “I’m just warming up!”

Refusing to reply, Mia launched herself in Mercury direction and he didn’t have trouble dodging her, but he saw how Mia was smiling. He began to wonder why she was doing that, but it wasn’t until Mia said, “Now, you’re mine” that Mercury realize that his feet had been caught by her shadow’s threads. Mia had decided to get close to him to distract him so she could snag him with her shadows without him noticing. Mercury tried to draw his arm back so he could punch Mia, but several shadow threads tied his arms to his torso. He brought his gaze to meet Mia’s eyes, the left one was purple and the right one was yellow. She squeezed her fists tightly.

“Since I already left Emerald unconscious, you will be the one in pay for what you two did during the Vytal tournament.” Mia’s right gauntlet began to release fire and judging from her eyes, she was really angry. “This is for what you and Emerald did to Yang Xiao Long!”

.

.

.

How much time had passed?

Mia had said that if she didn’t return in twenty minutes Blake should leave but, sadly, Blake didn’t know what time it was. Had twenty minutes already passed? She didn’t know. Should she go down and see if Mia was fine? She wanted to do it, but Mia would probably get mad at her. A few seconds ago she had also heard something like explosions coming from the chamber. She was really worried for Mia but, why? She just had met her a month ago and she wasn’t even sure who Mia really was but, as Yang said, she feel some sort of connection with Raven and Mia.

The floor suddenly began to shake and eventually someone broke through the floor and ended up colliding with the training area’s roof. She saw that it was a guy as he fell to the floor as though he was a rag doll. Now that Blake can see him better, she recognized him as the guy who fought against Yang in the one vs one match of the Vytal tournament. But… what happened to him? Why he was in the chamber? Furthermore, was he still alive?

“Uphs… I spend too much energy on him.”

Mia was climbing out of the chamber and she was carrying two unconscious women. Mia dropped Emerald and Cinder on the floor and ran to Mercury’s side to make sure he was not dead. Luckily he wasn’t, the force of the blow had merely left him unconscious… and broke four of his ribs. But he was still alive.

“Hey, I saw this people at the Vytal tournament.” Blake said. “Mia, what is going on?”

“I’ll answer you later, before anyone gets here. Please help me to get these three into our ship.”

Using the black bandage from Mia’s left arm, Mia and Blake tied Cinder and Mercury feet and arms. Mia covered Mercury mouth just in case, and then, they took them right to the ship.

Blake was going to ask a lot of thing but, when she placed Cinder on the ship’s floor, she saw how Mia took out a small crystal ball from her shorts’s pocket. Then Mia put the crystal ball on Cinder’s back, on a strange tattoo on her back to be more specific. Cinder’s body began to release a brown glow, several passed before Cinder’s body stopped glowing and now Mia’s crystal ball was shining the same color.

“Mission complete!” Mia exclaimed.

 _“What just happened?”_ Blake thought. At that point she had decided to not ask questions because the probability of receiving “Classified” as an answer was very high. She noticed something on Mia’s face “M-mia, are you ok?”

“Of course I am, why do you ask that?”

“Because your face…” Blake sounded worried. “Why are you crying?”

That question made Mia touch her face and, in fact, she was crying. But she didn’t know why, she hadn’t gotten hurt and didn’t felt any pain in her body. Suddenly she felt something in her chest, a little twinge of pain followed by a huge feeling of sadness. This wasn’t the first time that she felt like that. She had felt the same way several times in the past and Mia know the reason. Nobody know why, but occasionally twins tended to share pain and feelings.

“Raven...” Mia whispered and she turned to look at Blake. “Something has happened to Raven.”

“What!?” She said, feeling worried for both, Yang and Raven.

“We need to hurry up!” Mia claimed and then she took a small dark crystal out of her shorts’s left pocket.

.

.

.

**9:40 a.m**

**Somewhere in Mistral.**

The first thing that came to Raven’s mind was how much trouble Mia was going to be in. The faunus had quickly realized that Yang was following her, but she didn’t try to convince her to return to Blake and Mia. Raven knew Yang very well, she knew that, no matter what, Yang wouldn’t listen to her. She couldn’t blame Yang for having followed her, Raven knew that everything had been Mia’s idea.

“Then… what we gonna do?” Yang asked.

“Listen Yang, I don’t want to sound rude. You can come with me, but please don’t try to help me.”

“Why!?”

“To be honest, I would have preferred to do this alone but, thanks to Mia, that isn’t the case anymore, just please, don’t ask questions and do what I say.”

“Okay, but if I see that you’re having a problem, I swear that I’ll help you.”

Raven sighed, one part of her was happy because her mom was with her, but the other part was worried about what could happen. The clock was running and Raven couldn’t waste more time, she took one part of her Bumblebee. In the beginning, Raven’s weapon was just one sword. But a year before going to the past, she decided to make a second sword with dark crystals in it. She thought that doing that was more easier than lugging small fragments of crystals in her pockets. Raven was right handed so, to not confuse her swords, she decided to use her left hand to hold the special Bumblebee. She also had put a red stain on the sword made of the dark crystal and metal.

 _“Here I go”_ Raven said to herself. This was not the first time that she had tried to open a portal. She had practiced before arriving to the past, but the results had been a little… bad. She should have practiced more, but she couldn’t because there were too many things that she and Summer needed to do. All that she knew was that she needed to focus on the place, or the person, that she wished to see. She didn’t know the “Dark zone”, as Mia called it, so instead she began to focus her mind on Salem.

Raven slashed her sword through the air once. Nothing happened, so she tried again. Still, nothing. Maybe she wasn’t focused enough. Raven thought of Salem, she thought of her really hard and slashed her sword in the air for the third time and… she had did it. A black hole with red edges had appeared in front of Raven and Yang’s eyes.

“What did you do?” Yang whispered.

“There’s no time to answer that. Just follow me.”

The two blondes entered to the portal. For a moment all they could see was darkness, and the next thing that they saw was pretty disturbing. They were in a place that had black clouds in the sky and what little sky that could be seen was completely red. There wasn’t a single building, everything that they could see was either red stalagmites or dark-red crystals of different sizes coming out of the floor.

“Where we are?” Yang asked, but Raven told her to keep silent.

Trying to make the least amount of noise as possible, they began to walk. Red rocks and crystals were the only things that they were able to see for a while and, occasionally, they could hear thunder. A lot of question were in Yang’s mind. Where were they were? Who or what was Raven searching for? The portal that Raven had opened… she felt that she had seen that kind of portal before, but couldn’t remember where. Suddenly, Raven pushed her up behind an enormous stalagmite. Raven told her to keep silent before she had time to even try to ask anything.

 _“Wait for me here and don’t you dare do something_.” Raven had said while she drew one of her swords with her right arm. Yang turned to see what Raven was looking at and she saw someone, a woman, standing on a mound of Stone. For some reason she was looking to the horizon and, for what they could see from behind her, she had white hair and was wearing a black dress. Raven began to walk in the women’s direction. Yang wanted to follow her, but she knew that Raven wouldn’t let her help. Judging from Raven’s actions, Yang was able to figured out what the girl wanted to do; kill that women.

Raven could feel her heart beating very hard, she was nervous. She was more nervous than she had expected and she tried to calm herself with the next thought. “I just need to stick my sword in her forehead and mission complete.” It sounded easy, but she didn’t know what could happen and, to make things worse, Yang was there. Maybe if she had been alone then she wouldn’t feel so nervous. Raven was only a few meters away from Salem, her body was shaking, her heart was beating as never before, but there was no turning back. It was now or never, she prepared her attack and…

“You really thought that killing me would be so easy?”

Hearing that make Raven’s body freeze. She hear the snapping of fingers and then two Ursas came out of the ground. When she saw that, Yang almost cried out Raven’s name, but she covered her mouth and reminded herself that Raven didn’t want her to make noise. Raven activated her semblance and, in less than a blink of the eye, the grimm had been reduced to ashes. Then Raven saw them, a pair of red eyes with black sclerotic.

“Those eyes of yours…” Salem said. “They look like the eyes of someone whom I know.”

“I hear that very often. By the way, nice to meet you, Salem.”

“Salem!?” Yang thought and several flashbacks of the “dream” in which she talked with her mother come to her mind… it couldn’t be…

“I’m surprised that you know my name.” Salem said, but she didn’t sound worried.

“Sadly, you won’t be able to know mine.”

Raven launched herself at Salem, her eyes were focused on the red crystal in the woman’s forehead. All she had to do is stick her sword into that crystal and everything would be over. It was easy, so easy, she can do it! Raven couldn’t even believe that only a few seconds ago she was worried. She was so focused on the crystal that she didn’t put any attention to her right side. Suddenly she noticed her right arm was moving on its own, floating in the air, and eventually falling to the ground. Someone had cut off her arm.

When Raven turn to look to her right side, she saw a red sword and a Grimm mask in front of her. Then she was tackled into a portal together with the person who had cut her right arm. _Grand…ma?_ Was the only thing Raven was able to whisper before the portal closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, cliffhanger, What would I do without them?, sorry if the battle was not well writting but like I say, I suck doing that, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed the chapter, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Side note: Dear Cinder Fall  
> I hate you so much that I don’t want to write you saying or doing something, hope you have horrible nightmare during your time asleep.  
> Atte. Geo.
> 
> Side note #2: Vol. 4 is near!!!!


	18. Raven's decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woho! Two chapters in one day!  
> This chapter gave me so many problems…but here is it!!! As always enojy and please remember that I’m no very good writting battles and, just in case, please remember this:  
> Raven= Yang’s mom.  
> Rae= Bee kid.

Yang covered her mouth with her hands. She was sweating, shaking, and worried, what had just happened? The flashbacks of her conversation with Raven kept running through her head. It hadn’t been a dream, everything had been real. “What are you waiting for, show yourself.” Yang heard Salem call out and her body shuddered. The fear invaded her body but, even so, she came out of hiding.

“I see.” Salem said once she saw Yang. “So you are Branwen’s daughter.”

“And you are the **_thing_** that made her leave me! You’re the one who dared to **_kill_** Summer Rose!” Even so she had said that, Yang still felt scared.

“I am guessing that you already talked to Raven but believe it or not, I’m a woman of my word. So, while I did promise her that I wouldn’t hurt you…” She snapped her fingers and ursas, beowolves, a nevermore and even a pair of goliaths come out of the floor. “Though grimm weren’t a part of our deal.”

“That is all you have? These guys are only going to make for a light warm up!”

Yang’s heart was beating very hard and her body was shaking. The women standing in front of her made her feel scared. Yang looked down at her right arm, when she was in Beacon, during her rehabilitation, Mia had helped her fight some grimm, but Mia wasn’t here, Raven neither. This was her first time fighting alone since she got her new arm. Though, Yang felt a small bit of relief knowing that Blake wasn’t there either. She didn’t want to put her partner in danger and, taking a deep breath, her eyes changed to red and she started her attack.

.

.

.

Rae was lying in the ground and surrounded by mounds snow. She must be in some snowy mountain and in front of her… there was Raven Branwen. Even though she had her mask on, Rae could feel her grandma eyes were shining just like her right hand. It seemed like Raven was about to use her Maiden power on Rae at any moment.

“Why…?” Rae whispered.

“I have been following you since you and the others left Beacon. Because of that, I was able to overhear the plan that you and Summer had made.”

“Then… why did you stop me?”

“You know why as well as I do. If Salem is killed within the next five days a more powerful enemy will appear.”

“If you know that then…” Rae clenched her left fist. “You should know that he will only be at  50% of his full strength!!! Summer and I already have a plan to defeat him! Why do you stop me, Grandma!?”

“So, you really are my grandkid.” Raven said, her right hand had stopped shining. She wasn’t surprised, as she knew the possibility that the girl in front of her was related to her was very high since the moment she saw Rae and Mia weeks ago. “I’ll answer that but, after that, you will answer my questions.”

Rae didn’t answer and then Raven spoke again.

“I have known about Salem’s weak point for years, but I didn’t try to kill her because I knew what would happen next. I guess that you know what my plan was for if that ever happened, but if you, and your family, can defeat him then at least I want to make Salem pay for what she has done to me all this year. I don’t care what can happens to me anymore.”

Rae’s whole body shuddered and she looked up at her grandma, she could not be referring to…

“Grandma….” Rae whispered.

“For seventeen years I have been acting as a messenger. I haven’t practiced my Maiden powers during that time, and I’m not young anymore, but I’m very aware of the consequences.” She carefully took in the details her grandkid’s scared face. “Now is my turn to make questions. I am guessing that in the future I’m dead and I want to know how that happened.”

Rae didn’t had any other options other than responding. She said team RWBY had been the ones who killed Salem in the future, and that Raven had created a special crystal ball that was able to steal the maidens’s powers without killing them. After she stole the three other maidens’s powers she fused herself with an unimaginable amount of Dust. When Exitium awoke and he attacked Vale and Raven sacrifice herself for seal him again, freezing him in an unbreakable dust crystal and causing her body to vanish in the process.

After hearing that Raven sighed. _So, in the end. I will be able to make that crystal ball work._ She thought to herself. Of course, she had believed everything that Rae told her. A long time ago she had found a way for use Dust to seal Salem or Exitium in a dust crystal, but she had decided to not use it until she had completed the crystal ball’s construction. When Rae told her that the seal will only work for ten years, she felt more relieved for not having tried to seal Salem in the past. It would have only lengthened the inevitable. The next question was why Rae’s name was Raven.

“When I had six.” Rae began looking away from her grandma. “Mom told me why she named me “Raven.” On that day I was mad because some kids had mocked me because of my eyes and name, I yelled at mom. “Why do you name me like I bird if I’m a cat faunus!?” I tried to away from home, but mom followed me and asked me “Do you know why your name is Raven?” Of course, I answered “No.” Then she told me about you and how, that the day that Mia and I were born, she cried when she realized that I had inherited your eyes. In your honor she decided to named me after you.”

“I see.” Raven said. “Last question, was Yang happy in the future?”

“I don’t have a single memory in which my mothers weren’t happy.”

After that Rae looked back at Raven and, to her surprise, her grandma had her Bumblebee. When did she get that? “If you want to help me then try to finding this, after all this is your key.” Raven said before turning and throwing Bumblebee as far as she could. Opening a portal of her own, she felt Rae grab her left foot.

“I won’t let you go…” Rae said. “I won’t let you, grandma.”

“Now that mention it…” Raven used her right foot to kick Rae’s hand and free herself from her granddaughter’s grip. “It was nice to meet you but, please, don’t call me grandma. I’m not that old.”

Rae watched helplessly as Raven entered the portal and, before she could even reach it… it had already closed. She grit her teeth and shouted “Grandma!” Suddenly, she heard someone else shout her name and, to her surprise, Qrow was there.

“Shit…” He said. “I lost her.”

“Grunkle…” Rae whispered “What are you doing here?”

“That’s my question. I saw Raven in Vale and then she just made me enter one of her freaking portals and I ended up here.”

Rae desperately clutched Qrow by his shirt and with tears in her faces she said.

“Help me to search my Bumblebee, Grandma is in danger!!!”

.

.

.

Yang was wheezing. She had beat so many grimm and now the only one that was left was a goliath. She knew that defeating it would normally be easy but, at that moment, she was too tired. The goliath was going to attack her but, before it could make it to her, Yang saw the grimm’s body shine with an orange light and turn to ash. Raven stepped into her line of sight and stood in front of her.

Yang wasn’t able to say anything because Raven suddenly pushed her and the blonde heard Salem snap her fingers and she began to be surrounded by rock. The rock kept forming until she ended up inside of some kind of dome. Desperately, Yang began to strike the rock wall. She needed to get out of there, now that she knew the talk who she had with Raven hadn’t been a dream. She really needed to make sure Raven survived so she could to talk with her, but Yang didn’t know how much strength she would need to use for get out of the dome; the rock was so strong.

Outside of the rock dome, Raven saw Rae’s right arm, and her other sword, which she picked up. “As you see, I kept my promise to not hurt your family.” Raven heard Salem speak. She turned to look at Salem and…

“What are you doing, Branwen?”

Salem stopped the little black sword Raven had thrown right at her forehead. Salem let the sword fall to the floor and watched as Raven took off her mask, revealing her face. A face which Salem hadn’t seen in eleven years.

“Something that I should have done seventeen years ago.” Raven said. “I am finishing what I started.”

Raven let her mask fall to the floor as she drew her sword and she jumped in Salem’s direction. A beowolf got in her way and she easily cut it in half, but Salem had disappeared. When Raven looked around to see where that witch had run off to she notice that she was surrounded by grimm.

Ursas, beowolves, goliaths, nevermores, gorillas, almost every grimm type that she knew of was there. _Right_ , Raven had almost forget, most of the dark crystals in that place were frozen grimm that Salem had collected over the years. Raven sighed, this was going to take some time. Her eyes began to shine as another beowolf tried to attack her, but she put her left hand on the grimms face and a little orange light emanated from of Raven’s hand. The grimm began to glow with the same light and before turning into a pile of ashes. A gorilla tried to take advantage of the distraction and moved to attack her from behind, but she deftly turned and cut it in half.

She looked around and there wasn’t a single sign of Salem. A “Tsk” came out of Raven’s mouth. She knew that Salem could leave her “home” at any time, so she must find her before that could happen. However, there were still a lot of grimm, so she decide to use her maiden powers. Unfortunately, as she had told to Rae some moments ago, she hadn’t practiced with them in a very long time so she didn’t know what to expect. More ursa and beowolves tried to attack her and, again, Raven’s eyes began to shine. A red wave of power radiated out from her body and the grimm began to burn. Using blue-Dust, she started running through the crowd of grimm and began to slash at the. Thanks to the Dust, they began to freeze after being hit by her attacks. Switching her Dust, a big ball of fire appeared in her hand and she threw it at the frozen grimm.

Raven had begun to wheeze, she was getting tired too quickly. Well. it was the first time that she used her powers in a very long time. A goliath was the next to try to attack her, but Raven repeated her previous tactic and grabbed its trunk. The orange energy came out of her body again and the goliath became ash. Switching back to her sword, she began to slash the rest of the grimm, randomly using the different Dust from her sword sheath. The grimm were burned, frozen, and electrocuted until only the nevermores remained, and there were three of them.

Raven could use her semblance to fly in the nevermore’s direction but, if she turned herself into a bird, things would become more difficult. She decide to use the Maiden power yet again, her eyes began to shine. She quickly found herself floating above the ground and, when she was in the air, she saw Salem. The pale-haired woman was standing on one of the stalagmites where she was watching, and enjoying, Raven’s fight against the grimm. Raven turned back to focus on the three nevermores in front of her and an idea come to her mind.

The first thing that Raven did was fly to the other side of the area, making the nevermores follow her, and forcing them to avoid colliding with crystals and stalagmites. Resheathing her sword she switched it to use red-Dust before quickly drawing it and slashing one of the grimm’s wings making it ignite in flames. Shortly after that, the burned nevermore fell from the air, the second nevermore fell moments later when she cut off its head. There was only one left now, and Raven began to fly away with the grimm trailing behind her. Raven was leading it in Salem’s direction. Once positioned properly, Raven moved swiftly and was suddenly standing on the nevermore’s back. She stabbed her sword into the grimm’s back and, using all the blue Dust that she had left, the nevermore ended up completely frozen and began to fall.

“Interesting.” Salem said when she saw the frozen nevermore in front of her.

She put one finger in the Grimm beak and broke it off. After that she saw Raven approaching her with her right hand balled into a fist and ready to hit Salem’s face. Raven had attempted to jump off the nevermore’s back, once it was totally frozen, and land on top of Salem. Raven ended up hitting the floor instead because Salem just disappeared right in front of her eyes.  Reappearing quickly, and before Raven could realize that she was in front of her, Salem put one finger on Raven’s forehead. Just that small motion cause Raven to launched away from Salem and she end up crashing into a crystal. Blood flowed from her mouth due the impact, but she didn’t care. Raven quickly gathered herself and she ran in Salem direction. No matter what happened, she really want to punch her right in the face. Salem dodged Raven with easy and she turned her right hand into dark claws. Sheerly by reflex, Raven used her sword to block them. Raven, still using the red-Dust blade, slashed through one of the claws, causing Salem’s hand to begin to burn. Salem didn’t care, she merely cut off her hand and a new one grew to replace it.

Raven conjured a pair of fireballs in her hands and she threw them both at Salem, but they didn’t even touch her. The fireballs just bent her, as both women knew that Salem was invulnerable to the maidens powers. Salem arrogantly chalked up Raven’s actions to ignorance, but who said that Raven was aiming at Salem?

The crystals and the stalagmites behind Salem had been Raven objective since the beginning. Salem noticed that the debris would fall on her, and generated and invisible wave of power from her body, turning the debris turn into powder. But, she was so focused on the debris that she didn’t notice the that Raven was able to run up right in front of her.

“This is for Summer!!!” Raven cried before her fist connected with Salem’s face.

Raven’s punch was so strong that Salem flew backwards several meters. Raven was left gasping for air, she felt so tired. Salem stood up from the place where she had landed, the blow left a mark on her face and she turned to look at Raven with anger in her eyes.

Raven saw that snakes were starting to come out of Salem’s dress sleeves. Looking closer, she saw that Salem’s sleeves themselves were turning into snakes. Now Raven understood why all those grimm attacked her. Salem had never planned to flee, she had done everything in order to weaken Raven by forcing her use her powers and expending most of her energy. It had been Salem’s plan since the beginning and she had fallen for it like a fool.

The snakes began to attack her and she had no choice but to block them with her sword. Since Salem was a female version of Exitium, and Exitium was the hermit, the maidens powers couldn’t hurt her. The snakes had come from Salem’s sleeves so Raven didn’t know if her powers would do anything against them. Giving herself some space, she considered she should at least try it. Her eyes began to shine and a red wave of power came out of her body. For a brief moment, the snakes froze before they began to burn. As Raven had expected, the red wave of power couldn’t touched Salem. While she was burning the snakes, Raven had also accumulated some of her power in her feet, and used that to launch herself forward and end up in front of Salem in less than a wink. Taking the advantage of surprise, Raven cut Salem’s head off with her sword.

“Now…” Raven said while she picked up Salem’s head. “I’ll will make you pay for the last seventeen years”

“It seems that anger has clouded your judgment.” The head suddenly spoke.

Then Raven felt a sting in her neck. One of Salem’s hairs had turned into a snake… and the snake had bit through Raven’s jugular vein. She dropped the head and brought her left hand to her neck trying to stop the blood. Pain began to attack Raven; her feet, arm, stomach, and shoulders. The pain made her drop her sword and she turned to look at Salem. Her head was in her body like nothing had happened and her hands had turned into claws, claws which slashed at Raven’s body, causing her to fall to her knees. Due to loss of blood Raven began to feel her body cold and her vision was clouding.

“Looks like you only have some seconds left and, knowing you, you’ll think of a man in your last moments to make me lose the Summer Maiden powers for a while, but…” Salem’s eyes were focused in the rock dome. “I won’t let that happen.”

Yang… if Salem tried to attack Yang before Raven’s death, then it was more than likely that the last person in her thoughts would be her daughter. To Salem’s surprise, Raven began to laugh.

“Are you sure that she’s still there?”

As Salem heard that, she felt a sword plunge into the back of her head. The sword pierced all the way through and exited out her right eye. Salem suddenly vanished and the sword fell to the ground. It was the little black sword that Raven had thrown at Salem earlier, and the person who had stuck the sword in her head was Yang.

“How did you know?” Yang asked. She had managed to break one of the rock dome walls without anyone noticing and, while Raven was distracting the nevermores, she had picked up Rae’s Bumblebee and began to search Salem.

“Sunshine… I already told you… I’m your mother…”

Raven could barely say a full sentence, the blood coming out of her jugular vein was too much. As Salem had said, it looked like she only had a few moments left. Seeing her mother like that made Yang feel bad, she looked so weak and vulnerable. Yang clenched her fists… if she had acted only a few seconds earlier. As for Raven, she felt like a total fool, she had fallen into Salem’s trap to weaken her and, Salem’s was right, the anger had clouded her judgment. The anger that she had kept in her inside for seventeen years.

“You…” Raven and Yang heard. It was Salem, and she sounded very angry. “You will pay for this.”

Suddenly Salem reappeared in front of Yang, her right hand was still formed into claws. She had all the intention to kill Yang and the blonde barely have time to react, run, or defend herself. She prepared for the worse as Salem attack and, the next thing that Yang felt, was something hot in her face and in front of her eyes… there was Raven in between the two of them and Salem’s claw had pierced Raven’s chest.

“I always know that you were a fool, Branwen.”

Raven didn’t answer and, with both of her hands, she grabbed onto Salem’s arm to prevent her from running away again. Blood was dripping from her mouth and, from the way that she was holding onto Salem, she didn’t have much strength left in her body.

“I… can be… a fool… but I have… something that you… don’t have…” Raven smiled when she saw Salem’s confused face. “People in which I believe in, with all my heart.”

After hearing that, the next thing that Salem knew was that her head was floating in the air again, Qrow had cut it off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life is fragile and the human body is full of weak points, I really like to reflect that in the things that I wrote, no one is invicible, well, that’s all for now, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	19. Goodbye and hello

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, right now I don’t have much to say and for what happen in the previous chapter…I guess that everyone have an idea of what going to happen here, so, just enjoy.

**Vale’s safe point**

**Ozpin’s room**

“Calm down, Branwen!”

“I TOLD YOU, LET ME GO!”

Following Raven’s advice, Qrow decided to ask Ozpin about the Summer Maiden. Before he gave any answer, Ozpin sighed and told Qrow that he would accept anything that the scythe-wielder would want to do to him after learning the truth. At first, neither Qrow nor Glynda understood the implications of his statement but, after Ozpin said the name of the actual Summer Maiden… the first thing that Qrow did was punch him in the face.

Glynda jumped forward to try to prevent Qrow from hitting Ozpin again. The difference in physical strength between the two was very evident and, for once, Glynda began to wish that James was there. Ozpin had some blood dripping from his nose, but he continued speaking about the day that Raven found out that she was a Maiden. He then told them about how Raven had demanded Ozpin not say a single word about it to her family and friends and about how Raven had insisted on fighting against Salem seventeen years ago. However, even Ozpin didn’t know why Raven had disappeared just one month after Yang’s birth. It became obvious to Qrow that information had been what Summer whispered into Ozpin’s ear barely one month ago.

“You fucking bastard!!!” Qrow cried out. “Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“Because Raven told me to not anything about it. Shortly before her disappearance she came to my office, put her sword to my neck, and said “If you know what’s best for you, you won’t say anything about you-know-what.” She also said that, knowing you, you’d do crazy things just for find her, even if those things put your life in danger.”

After hearing that Qrow calmed down a little and, without a word, he left the room. Now, the only ones who were still in the room where Ozpin and Glynda and, without having to look at the blonde, Ozpin knew she would not talk to him for a while. It was something that he could understand. After all, he had just told her something that he should told he a long time ago.

The first thing that Qrow did once he was outside the building was hit a tree with his full strength. Now everything made sense. Ozpin had inducted him as a “World keeper” shortly after Raven’s disappearance and most of the missions that Ozpin had given him were missions to try to track down the Summer Maiden. Basically, during those missions he was unknowingly trying to find his twin. He felt so frustrated, Ozpin didn’t know why Raven disappeared, but he knew that she was a Maiden and he decided to keep that information secret. He was felt cheated too. Ozpin, the person in which he had always believed in, had cheated him.

“I don’t know if it’s good or bad thing that your attitude hasn’t changed at all.”

When Qrow heard that, he looked up to see someone was sitting on one of the tree’s branches. That person jumped off the branch and landed in front of Qrow. It was Raven, he gritted his teeth and suddenly threw a punch at his sister’s face, but Raven dodged it.

“I’ll appreciate that you don’t try to do that again.” Raven said. “Yang hit me a few days ago and my face still hurts.”

“Well… I am now convinced that you are not a delusion.” Qrow said, but the anger in his voice was obvious. “Ozpin already told me the truth, so… why didn’t you tell me that you are a Maiden!?”

“We may be twins, but sometimes I prefer to keep secrets even from you.”

“Secrets!? You know that I could have helped you if you had just told me! We’re family!!!”

“Well, sorry for that, but I didn’t want to put your life in danger.”

After hearing that Qrow barely was able to say “Do you think that I am weak!?” because suddenly Raven pushed him through a portal. He didn’t notice when she had opened it, and the last thing that he saw before the portal closed was Raven taking off her mask and saying, “You could be an idiot, but you are the best brother that I could ask for.” The next thing that he knew, was that he was lying in snow. Raven had sent him to a snowy mountain somewhere.

“Raven!!!” He shouted, but he didn’t know why.

.

.

.

“Seriously” Tai said to himself. “Those girl will hear from me when they return.”

He was sitting in a rock outside of the building and Zwei was watching him very carefully. Qrow had told to him that Ruby and Yang decided to accompany some friends on a mission outside of Vale, but that they’ll return later in the day. He wasn’t angry, actually he felt proud of his daughters. Nothing was more noble than helping a friend, but Ruby or Yang could have at least said something about it. Suddenly Zwei began barking.

“What’s up, buddy?” He asked.

“Even after all this years you haven’t changed at all.”

When Taiyang heard that, he quickly turned to look behind him, but nobody was there. Zwei stopped barking and began to sniff the ground. Zwei turned to look his owner and barked one more time while pointing at something on the ground. It was a black feather and Tai picked it up.

“Strange.” He said. “I haven’t seen a single black bird here before.”

.

.

.

Qrow didn’t know what had happened. While he was helping Rae search for her sword, and wondering why his twin had senr him and Rae to that mountain, he suddenly felt a big, and strong stabbing pain in his chest. This sensation was followed by a feeling of emptiness and the feeling of that something was coming to the end. For some reason he feel the urge to cry and Raven’s face come to his mind… it couldn’t be…

“I found it!!!” Rae suddenly yelled.

“What are you waiting for!?” He yelled with his right hand on his chest.

Without another word, Rae slashed her sword into the air and a portal appeared in front of them. They both crossed into it and the first thing that they saw was Salem’s back and, in front of her… neither of them wanted to believe what their eyes were seeing. Qrow drew his sword and it quickly transformed into a scythe.

“I… can be… a fool… but I have… something that you… don’t have…” Raven smiled when she saw Salem’s confused face. “People in which I believe in, with all my heart.”

After hearing that, the next thing that Salem knew was that her head was floating in the air again. Qrow had cut straight through her neck. The first Salem saw was Rae, and she turned some of her hair into another snake and tried to attack the blonde. Rae activated her semblance, reducing the snake to ashes in less than a blink of the eye. To Rae surprise, Salem smiled when she realized that the faunus had stuck the crystal into the Witch’s forehead. “Now there is no turning back.” Salem whispered and Rae was able to hear it. “We are prepared for that.” She answered, but Salem’s smile didn’t disappear. Salem’s body and head began to shine before turning into black smoke. Rae fell to her knees, she had completed her mission, but there was nothing to celebrate.

“See my family… help me defeat… someone who I hate… certainly… feels… good…”

So that had been the reason why Raven sent Qrow and Rae to the same place. She must have known that something would happen to her and, if she couldn’t kill Salem, at least she wanted someone of her own blood finish the job. Maybe when Raven threw Rae’s Bumblebee into the snow she knew that Qrow and Rae would find it quickly. Qrow was ready to catch his sister’s body, but Raven fell backwards making Yang catch her.

Now Qrow could see his sister’s true condition; blood, blood, and more blood. She was bleeding from her neck, arms, feet, and a big hole in her chest. It was a miracle that Raven could even talk. Since the silver-eyed people were created by the Summer Maiden, Qrow thought that maybe there was a possibility that the Summer Maiden’s main power was healing wounds. But, when he looked into his twin eyes, he understand. Even if the healing power was true, Raven wasn’t in the condition to use it. Qrow put his hand on his chest and fell to his knees. The feeling that he was about to lose something increased, he didn’t want to believe it, but that was the true.

“Sis!!!!” Mia’s voice resounded through the place, she and Blake had just arrived and, when they saw the scene… Mia covered her mouth with her left hand and some tears began to come out of her eyes. When Blake noticed the resemblance between Yang and the women in her arms, she quickly realized that she was Yang’s mother. Blake felt the urge to hug Yang, but instead of that she hugged Mia. Blake knew what was about to happen and really didn’t know what to do.

“So… this is my end…” Raven said softly.

“W-what are you saying?” Yang said. “I just found you after seventeen years, don’t say stupid things!!!”

Yang turned to see her uncle searching for a way to help, but she saw him gritting his teeth with some tears in the corner of his eyes. Yang had never seen her uncle like that before. The next person that she saw was Rae, the blonde had began to hit the ground while the tears were flowing freely from her eyes. She turn to look at Mia, she was sobbing into Blake’s arm, and finally Yang looked Blake in the eyes. Blake felt pain in her heart when she saw Yang’s purple eyes tearing up, she was desperate. Yang wanted an answer, she wanted to help, and Blake was Yang’s last hope. Blake’s eyes full with tears as well as she bit her lip and shook her head, there was nothing they could do.

“It’s not fair…” Yang whispered while turning back to her mother. “I have a lot of things to ask you and a lot of things that I wanted to do with you… this is not fair.”

“Sometimes life isn’t fair, Sunshine.” Raven said, her voice sounded so weak. “I… have a lot of… regrets… left my family… not being able to save Summer… not being able to see you grow up…”

Yang finally let loose and started to cry, she could feel her mother’s body starting to freeze, Raven’s end was near.

“Mom…” Yang cried.

“Having you call me mom… makes me feel good… Ruby is Summer’s daughter, please tell her to have a happy life, and...” With the little strength she had left, Raven was able to put her left hand on Yang’s cheek. “Even if you can’t see me… I’ll watching you… I wish you… a very happy… life...”

Yang was going to hold her mom’s hand, but she couldn’t, Raven’s hand had fellen to the floor and the light in her eyes was extinguished, Qrow tightened his grip on his shirt, something… he felt that he had lost something important to him at that moment. He couldn’t control himself any longer, and began to sob. A light came out of Raven’s body and, for a moment, the light seem to go in Yang’s direction. But the light’s destination was the crystal ball that Mia’s had. The crystal ball began to shine with the colors brown and pink. Yang’s cries were to only thing that could now be heard.

.

.

.

“Sis!” Silver said with tears in her eyes. “What happened!? What happened to Raven!?”

Everyone was wondering what Mia had said to Summer and, by Silver’s look, it could not have been good news. Ruby and Weiss were trying to calm Summer, and Winter was trying to calm Silver.

“Our Raven is fine, she and Mia completed their missions, but…” Summer put her hand on her face while more tears were coming out. “Raven Branwen’s life was lost during the fight.”

Once everyone hear that, Silver fell to her knees cried. Ruby covered her mouth while the tears began to flow for her eyes. Weiss looked at Winter and Winter looked at Weiss, neither of them had heard that name before. Weiss turned to look at Ruby and ask her who she was, and Ruby answered.

“Raven Branwen is…” She sobbed. “Yang’s mom’s name…”

.

.

.

_Where I am?_

That was the first question that came to Raven Branwen’s mind when she opened her eyes. She touched her body, there wasn’t a single wound. Her neck was fine, there weren’t holes in her arms, shoulders, or feet, and the big hole in her chest had disappeared. She began to look around; white, all that she could see was the color white. No ground nor sky, just the color white.

“It’s have been a while since the last time we saw each other.”

Raven turned to see the owner of that voice, and she felt some tears in the corner of her eyes. A black dress, a white hood, and silver eyes, the last time that Raven had seen that person was eleven years ago.

“Summ…”

Raven couldn’t end her sentence because she had felt a sharp pain on her left cheek. Summer had slapped her? Why did everyone want to hit her in the face!? Okay, Raven knew that she had plenty of reasons for someone to want to hit her, but, why in the face!? Yang had punched her three times, Qrow had wanted to hit her but failed, and now Summer had slapped her.

“That hurt, Summer.” She said but notice that her friend was crying.

“You’re an idiot.” Summer sobbed. “Why you didn’t say something to us? I could’ve searched for a way to help you. Why do you always do dangerous things by yourself!?”

Raven know what Summer meant, she was talking about Salem and the fact that she had been a Maiden. Clenching her fists, Raven knew that she should have asked for help when she first returned home after her first encounter with Salem. But she hadn’t, and the reason was simple.

“Because, I didn’t want any of you die because of my mistakes.”

When Summer heard that she wiped away her tears and let out a small laugh. Raven didn’t look like a kind person, but she was. Raven really cared for her family and friends, and she wouldn’t ever have had any seconds thoughts about giving her life for the sake of her loved ones. Even if, in order to keep them safe, she need to leave them. Summer was going to say “Overprotective as always.” but she couldn’t say that because she found Raven kneeling in front of her. Summer had not expected that.

“R-Raven!? What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry!” Raven said. “You die because of me and I wasn’t able to save you. I am really sorry.”

For eleven years, Raven had wanted to say that to Summer. The reason why she began to work for Salem was to protect her loved ones, but in the end she wasn’t able to help her best friend. She had tried, she really tried to help Summer but, in the end, everything was in vain. She couldn’t feel worse with herself for not being able to do something for her friend. On the other hand, after hearing Raven’s apology, Summer smiled and she began to pet her friend hair. Although Raven hated it when someone touched her hair, Summer was one of the few people with whom she could not get angry about that with. Raven tilted her head up when she felt Summer’s hand caress her under the chin. Red eyes met silver eyes. Summer’s eyes gave off warmth and understanding and Raven began to feel calm. Summer’s eyes had always had that effect on her. Raven felt really happy when she saw Summer’s smile, a smile that she thought she won’t see ever again.

“Don’t blame yourself for that, you did what you could and I really appreciate it. Also…” Summer had stopped petting her friend’s head and stared her right in the eyes. “Since that happened, I have been able to see many things. Ruby, Yang, Tai, Qrow, you, everything thing that happened in Vale, all the things that our kids have done, and how our grandkids are trying to protect their mothers’ futures. The fact that Ruby named her daughter “Summer” made me feel really warm, and Silver is a very adorable and sweet girl. They’re the best grandkids that I could ask for.”

Raven sighed, and after that she smiled. As always, Summer could see the positive side of the things, and her last sentences had made Raven think about her own grandkids.

_Mom followed me and then she asked “Do you know why your name is Raven?” Of course, I answered “No.” Then she told me about you and how, that the the day that Mia and I were born, she cried when she realized that I had inherited your eyes. In your honor, she decided to name me after you._

Those words began to sound in her head, and her grandkids’ faces appeared in her head. Her grandkids, Yang and Blake daughters, the Xiao Long-Belladonna twins, Mia and… _Raven._

Yang’s futureself had decided to name one of her daughters after her. Although she was outside of Yang’s life, although she didn’t spend much time with her, through everything… Yang had decided to name one of her kids after her. Raven couldn’t feel more happy, that meant that Yang didn’t hate her as she thought. She turned to look at Summer, she was smiling while she held her right hand out in front of Raven and began to speak.

“From now on, let’s watch, protect, and ensure the safety of our family together as their guardian angels.” Summer’s smile became larger with the next sentence. “What do you say, partners in crime until the end?”

Raven laughed. It’s been years since the last time that she heard that phrase. When they were students at Beacon, she didn’t know when, Summer had began to use that phrase when they had a mission to do, or when she just wanted to do something together with her. Raven took Summer hand and answered.

“Until the end.”

From now on, Summer Rose and Raven Branwen will watch, protect, and ensure the safety of their family together, forever and ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny fact about this chapter, the part between Summer and Raven was not planned but before I realize it, I already wrote it, I think that my subconscious wanted to let Raven know that she was not as hated as she believed and that she was forgiven no matter what she had done and if I’m honest with all of you, personally this is my favorite chapter, well, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	20. Assimilation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, after what had heppened in the last chapters I don’t have much to say, just here’s come another “Feels” chapter….at least an attempt, this is the first time that I wrote things like this and I don’t know if I transmitting the feels properly, but whatever, let’s enjoy.

Even after she calmed herself, Summer didn’t say much more about what Mia had said to her.  All that Summer said was that Winter, and several Atlas soldiers, needed to escort Ruby, Weiss, and the “Rosch” sisters back to Vale.

Unlike her sister, Silver wasn’t able to calm herself after what had happened. Neither could Ruby and the two of them were crying during the trip. When they returned to Vale, the first thing that Ruby did was search for her father and tell him what had happened. Now the two of them, together with Zwei, were sitting under a tree. Ruby was lying down and sobbing into her father’s lap.

“It’s not fair…” She sniffed. “Now Yang won’t no longer be able to make peace with her mom… it’s not fair.”

Taiyang was petting his daughter’s head with his left hand and, with the right one, he was holding the black feather that Zwei had found a few hours ago. Now he knew where the feather had come from.

“I know.” He said. “It isn’t fair… The first thing that I hear about Raven after seventeen years is that she died.”

Ruby began to feel drops of water fall on her head; Taiyang was crying. She turned to look at Zwei, and he looked sad as well. Even Zwei knew that the Xiao Long-Rose family had lost a member that day.

Weiss, Winter, and Silver were watching the scene from a distance. None of them knew where Summer went after they arrived in Vale, and Silver was still crying while hugging Weiss. Weiss was trying to comfort the younger girl, but the person who she wanted to comfort the most was Ruby. She really hated to see Ruby cry, but, right now, there was nothing she could do. What had happened was a family matter, a very sad one. Even so, she really wanted to comfort Ruby, hug her, and tell her not to cry. Suddenly, she felt Winter’s hand on her shoulder.

“Give them time.” She said. “They are going toward something very difficult.”

Weiss sighed, her sister was right. She down at Silver and began to increase the force of her embrace while she patted the girl’s hair. Plus, Silver needed comfort too.

.

.

.

When she arrived to Vale, Summer went and locked herself in Ozpin’s room with him. She didn’t even ask why Glynda wasn’t there. Rae had called her shortly after Mia did and she told her everything, so Summer knew that Glynda was most likely mad at Ozpin for keeping the knowledge of the Summer Maiden a secret. Summer was sitting in a chair looking the wall and Ozpin was doing the same. Summer informed him how the battle against Salem had ended, and the two were thinking the same.

The way in which Rae killed Salem was too easy.

A life was lost during the battle and Summer was still sad because of that but, even so, Rae had killed Salem in a very easy way. Since the beginning, Summer and Raven had expected a difficult fight even if Raven’s semblance could hurt Salem. But when Qrow cut off Salem’s head, and Raven stuck her Sword in the witch’s forehead, Salem only tried to protect herself once. That had been strange, too strange. Why did Salem give up so easily? How could such a powerful enemy be defeated in such an easy way? Why she didn’t fight back?

“Shit!” Summer suddenly said. “I should have realized it sooner.”

“What?” Ozpin asked.

“In our future, Grunkle try to hide the crystal ball with the four maidens powers. Sadly, Exitium found it and, when he touched the ball, the maidens power returned to his body.”

“Are you talking about the moment in which he was no longer at 50% strength?”

Qrow must had said that before he asked Ozpin about the Summer Maiden. Summer nodded and replied that Salem knew how to steal the maidens powers, but she can’t take them for herself. That was the reason why she had decided to turn Cinder Fall in the Autumn Maiden. If Salem had been able to absorb the four maidens powers then, when she died, since she was part of the hermit’s soul, the powers of the maidens wouldn’t transfer to another person and Exitium would awaken with 100% of his strength. Luckily, Salem couldn’t do that and the reason was simple. Her body wouldn’t have been able to bear it since she was just a soul who keeps herself together with a crystal. An increase in power would end up destroying the crystal together with herself.

“Salem must have kept her eye on Cinder after what happened at Beacon.”

“How?” Ozpin asked.

“I don’t know how,, but I know that she could see where the currents maidens are. The reason why she wanted to turn her subordinates into Maidens was because she knew they wouldn’t abandon her plans; even if she died. When she and Exitium become one again their minds would merge as well, so reclaiming the rest of his power from the new maidens would not be difficult because he would know who they were.”

“Are you trying to say she planned what happened to her?”

“Salem must have known that Mia stole Cinder’s powers. She also knew the location of Raven Branwen and, because of that, she knew that if Raven died, she would lose track of the Summer Maiden for a while. Though, now we have two of the four maidens powers and I can’t stop thinking that Salem let Rae kill her. When Exitium awakens, and gets out of the “Dark Zone”, the first thing that he will do is attack Vale to search for and take the powers back. The Spring and Winter maidens will be in great danger… Salem just… let herself get killed on purpose.”

“But you already have a plan for defeat him. So, who care if Salem let herself get killed on purpose?”

“I know it, but it’s frustrating think that she let herself get killed. It’s like she had said to us, _“No matter what you attempt, you won’t be able to defeat my true self._ ”” Summer bit her lip, she felt frustrated.

So very frustrated.

.

.

.

After recovering from what had happened, the Mistral mission group decided to bury Raven as soon as possible; but not in Mistral. They decided to bury her in a familiar place. They decided to go to Patch and bury her next to Summer’s grave. The four hours of travel were very silent; Qrow didn’t even ask why Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald were in the airship. Nobody was in the mood to talk. When they arrived at Patch, Qrow was the one in carry his twin’s body, then he and Yang went to where they wanted to bury Raven. Blake followed them after a few minutes while Mia and Rae decided to wait on the ship.

Once they completed the burial, Qrow stuck his sister’s sword in the ground knowing she would be the type to like that kind of thing. Now Qrow and Yang were just sitting in front of the two graves, and Yang asked Qrow why he wanted to bury Raven next to Summer. He told her that, during their days in Beacon, Summer and Raven were inseparable. They were the best of friends that anyone could ever hope to meet. It made sense to him to leave them together.

“I see.” Was all Yang said. “You know, I talked to her. But I had believed that it was a dream… until now.”

“Would you mind telling me what she said?”

Yang said that Raven had told her why she left, about the maidens, about Salem, about how Raven ended up working for her. Then, for some reason, Yang wasn’t able to say anything about Exitium. Raven had told her the full version of the maidens story, so she knew about Exitium but, for some reason, Yang felt that she shouldn’t say anything about him. Instead of that, she told him what had really happened to Summer Rose on her last mission.

 _So, she lied to me._ Qrow thought when he heard that Salem had been to one to kill Summer. Realizing that Raven had blamed herself for that, he recognized that she really wanted to be hated, even by her own family, so no one would miss her if she died.

“Uncle, can I ask you something?” Yang saw her uncle nod. “She called me ‘Sunshine’, but that’s the nickname Dad and Summer used to call me when I was young. How do she know about it?”

“Because she was the one who first called you that. She was the one who decided to name you Yang and give you Tai’s surname. At first, I didn’t understand why she did that but, when she left us, everything started to make sense. During the month before she disappeared, she always called you that nickname.”

Yang sighed. So Raven had been the one who started calling her “Sunshine.” Suddenly, a picture appeared in front of Yang. It was a picture of her mother, a younger version of her. She was smiling while holding a bundle of blankets in which a baby with blonde hair was sleeping. Yang quickly identify that baby at herself and she turned to look at her uncle.

“Raven never let us take a picture of her during her pregnancy but, when you born, she asked me to take this picture. I found it in one of her pockets when I buried her. I already have a picture, and a lot of memories of her, so this is for you.”

Yang took the picture; Raven looked so happy holding her. She remembered the time when Raven protected her from Neo, the moment when Raven told her the truth, the moment which **_her mother_** wished her a happy life. Some tears appeared in the corner of Yang’s eyes and she quickly wiped them away. Qrow sighed when he saw that. He turned and looked around. He found Blake watching the scene and hiding herself behind a tree. After seeing that, Qrow decided to get up.

“What are you doing?” Yang asked.

“I already told you, I have a lot of memories of Raven. Take your time, I’ll wait for you in the ship with Rae and Mia.”

Just like that, Qrow left. “I leave her in your hands.” He said to Blake when he passed her.

After entering the forest, unlike what he had told Yang, he didn’t go to the ship. Instead of that, he leaned himself against a tree and put his right hand on his chest. His hand was covered with a mixture of blood and earth. Since Raven’s death, the feeling of emptiness had not abandoned his chest. Qrow had lost something important, he had lost his twin and he did not know when he would learn to live with that feeling of emptiness. He suddenly remembered his futureself and the sad way in which he had spoken about Raven. So, that feeling in his chest would not fade for a very long time. A single tear dripped from his eyes.

“Idiot…” He said thinking of Raven and the last words that she had spoken to him. “I’m the one who should have told you… that you were the best sister that I could ask for.”

The pair of black birds, the crow and the raven, the Branwen twins… from that day forward, they no longer existed.

After Qrow left Blake could only see Yang’s back. She felt so useless, Mia didn’t even need her help during the Haven incident. Maybe if she had decided to follow Rae and Yang she could have helped. Maybe she could have prevented Raven death. Everything was just that an ‘If’ or ‘Could’. She wasn’t able to do something to prevent the pain that her partner was suffering right now. She wasn’t able to help Mia, Rae, or Yang, she couldn’t do anything for them… nothing.

“You know.” Blake’s body tensed when she heard Yang’s voice. “It’s strange. My mother was out of my life since forever. I talked with her for the first time a couple of days ago. I know this can sound cruel and rude, but I shouldn’t feel sad for the death of someone who I only met a few days ago.”

“Yang…” Blake whispered. She couldn’t believe what Yang had said, but suddenly she heard her partner sob.

“But even in her last moments, she protected me from Salem. She told me that even if I couldn’t see her she will be watching over me. She wished me a happy life…” Yang continued to cry. “I knew her for only a short period of time, but even so… she was my mother.”

Yang had began to cry harder, and the first thing Blake did was hug her. It was the only thing that she could do at that moment. She didn’t know what to say to cheer Yang up, Blake didn’t even know if there were words that could cheer her partner up. The only thing that the faunus could do was comfort Yang and, no matter how much time passed, no matter if Yang ask her to leave, no matter what… Blake won’t leave Yang alone.

.

.

.

Raven was lying on the ship’s floor. She was covering her eyes with her left hand while Mia was repairing her sister right arm. Neither one of them had talked to each other since they left Mistral, they had been waiting to be left alone.

“Why?” Raven said suddenly, and Mia just answer with “Eh?”

Raven clenched her teeth and spoke again “Why did you say to mom to follow me?”

“Mama and mom looked worried when you left, so I thought that it was a good idea that one of them follow you. You know… just in case that you ended up in trouble.”

Mia heard her twin begin laugh while she said “You thought?”

Suddenly, Raven sat up and turned to look Mia right in the eyes. Mia felt scared, her sister’s eyes gave off anger and some flame began to come out of her body. Raven was furious.

“That’s your problem Mia, you never think properly!!!” Raven yelled. Mia moved herself back and she end up running herself into one of the walls. “You didn’t think of the consequences! Telling mom to follow me… WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?”

“I… I… just...” Mia eyes were tearing up. “…sorry.”

“Sorry won’t bring grandma back to life!!!”

“But neither of us could have predicted what happened!” Mia shouted in her defense. She was crying as her sister had scared her. Mia felt sad for what had happen to her grandma too, but having her sister yell at her made her feel worse. “Even if mom hadn’t follow you… Who said that the result would have been different!?”

Mia was right and Raven knew it. Even if Yang hadn’t followed her, what had happened when she tried to stab Salem’s forehead would had happened; everything would have ended up happening even if Yang hadn’t followed her. But, even so, Raven felt frustrated. How did she expect to change the future if she wasn’t even able to save a single member of her family? Mia looked back at her sister and and saw that she was crying now too. The last time that Mia had seen her sister cry was the day their parents died.

“I know…” Raven sobbed. “Even if mom hadn’t followed me, everything would have happened the same way… I know it… but still… it’s frustrating.”

Raven had fallen to her knees and Mia rushed over to hug her sister. Both of them were sad and they were both frustrated. Right now, as twins, the only thing that they could do was support each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I don’t have much to say here, wrote this chapters had been a really challenge, like I say at the beginning, I don’t know if I transmitting the feels properly but, whatever, I just write for hobby, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	21. Decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m going to be honest, this chapter was originally part of the previous one but I decide to separate them for two reasons, one, the chapter would have been pretty long and second, I feel that they looked better as separate chapters, that’s everything, now we can start.

The Mistral mission group spent another hour on Patch before deciding to return to Vale. The trip wasn’t long, only 10-15 minutes and, when they arrived, Raven went to who knows where. She probably went looking for Summer while Yang went to search her father and sister. Blake followed the blonde leaving Mia and Qrow the only ones still on the ship. Mia had called Silver to inform Winter, and the soldiers who would be accompanying her, that they could retrieve Cinder and her subordinates. Winter embraced Weiss as a sign of goodbye, and noticed that Silver had disappeared shortly after Mia’s call. Now, after getting her soldiers together, Winter Schnee was now standing in front of Qrow Branwen while Mia was giving instructions to the soldiers about what to do with the three criminals.

“The black-haired women won’t wake up for a few months. The other women will most likely wake up tomorrow. Her semblance is “Illusions” so, please don’t remove the bandage covering her eyes. The man should wake up in a few hours, but he has some broken ribs, please tell General James Ironwood about them.” After that Mia watched the soldiers carry Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury away before turning to look at Grunkle and aunt. “Well, that’s all. I’m leaving gru… I mean Mr. Branwen.”

Once Mia left, Qrow and Winter were completely alone. Winter didn’t ask about the purple-eyed girl’s identity, she just stared at the man in front of her. There wasn’t a single bad word, there wasn’t a single sneer of hate or disregard, there wasn’t a single sign of a fight… nothing. They didn’t do the normal things that they always did when they saw each other, they just did… nothing.

“I heard what happened” Winter said. “My deepest condolences.”

“Hearing that from you is pretty strange.” Qrow said.

“Listen, I could hate you, but I know the pain of losing someone you love. It’s because of that I give you my condolences.”

“I see, thanks.”

The only other thing Qrow said was to repeat Mia’s instructions about telling James about the three criminals and, if everything was going well with him right now, he must be free from blame for what happened at Beacon. After that, Qrow left and Winter started her trip back to Atlas.

.

.

.

When Yang found her father and sister, the first thing that she did was hug them. Unlike Taiyang and Ruby, she wasn’t crying. After a few seconds, like Summer had done, she didn’t give many details about what had happened. She didn’t talk about the maidens or Salem, she didn’t even talk about how Raven had died. She just said that Raven had died protecting her and that Qrow decided to bury her on Patch next to Summer. She also talked about the conversation that she had with Raven a few days ago and, again, she didn’t say anything about Salem. She just said that Raven told to her that someone had threatened her, and that was the reason why she had to leave her family. Also, Yang said that Raven was the one who left the white roses on Summer’s grave every month. After that, the Xiao Long-Rose family returned to their embrace. Yang was sad but, even so, she still didn’t cry, she had already cried all she needed to in front of Blake.

In the distance, Weiss and Blake were watching their partners. They didn’t talk at all but, without knowing it, the two were sharing the same feeling. Watching their respective partners made them feel useless, and neither of them had felt so useless in their whole life.

Unlike Yang, instead of going with his family, Qrow decided to go to Ozpin’s room. He found himself pretty surprised when he saw that Glynda was outside of the room, waiting for him.

“Summer told me what happened.” She said. “My deepest condolences, by the way. Summer and the others locked themselves in the next room.”

“You were waiting her just to tell me that?”

“Kind of. You’re mad with the headmaster and so I am. Like you, I also wanted to tell him what I think about the secret he kept from us.”

“I see.” Were Qrow’s words when he opened the door of the room. After opening the door, Qrow heard, “My deepest condolences.” three times in a row. Qrow didn’t try to hit Ozpin again, he didn’t shout at him, Qrow didn’t do anything, the only thing that he did was tell Ozpin that he felt cheated and he won’t be able to believe him for a while. That was all, then Qrow left the room to let Glynda tell Ozpin whatever she wanted to say. The first person that Qrow saw when he left the room was Taiyang.

“I believe that you were with Yang and Ruby.”

“I was.” Tai responded. “But Yang asked me to leave her alone with her team, so I decide to search for you. How are you feeling?”

 _How are you feeling?_ That was the last question that Qrow wanted to hear. He covered his face with his hands and he leaned against the door, slowly falling to the ground until he was sitting on it. Qrow had never felt so bad in his whole life. He had lost someone who had been with him since the beginning, he watched helplessly as the life of his sister was disappeared without be able to do anything about it. He couldn’t do anything for her; he couldn’t save her and, yo make things worse, he had to bury her. His tears, and the feeling of emptiness in his chest, only got bigger and bigger.

“I know that I could have done more for her.” He said “I know it…”

“So we are in the same situation.” Tai said “A dragon and a crow who could not help a dear member of team STRQ, again.”

Eleven years ago, after Summer’s death, they had peace that team STRQ was team _TRQ. Now they had become team _T_Q.

The rest of that day, and the next one, December 3rd, nothing relevant happened. Taiyang, Qrow, Yang, and Ruby received condolences from almost everyone. Ozpin, Glynda, Nora, Ren, Jaune, Pyrrha, nobody knew how they learned about what happened. As for team SSMR, the girls locked themselves in the room next to Ozpin’s and they didn’t leave it.

“They don’t even want pancakes!!” Nora claimed when Ruby told her that the girls didn’t want anything to eat. Although team JNPR only knew Silver and Mia, as Summer and Raven hadn’t show themselves to them yet, neither Weiss, nor Blake, abandoned Ruby and Yang during that time. They had lost a member of their own families before, and the only thing that Weiss and Blake could do was give support to their partners.

And now it was 5:00 a.m of December 4th, the count down for Exitium to awaken had begun at the 11:00 a.m. on December 2nd, the hour Salem had died. So, at eleven o’clock of the morning of that day, the number of days before Exitium awakens will become three.

Inside of team SSMR’s room, Mia was sleeping on the floor. She had been up late working on her twin’s right-arm. While Silver was sleeping with her sister, Raven was awake. She put on Mia’s sweatshirt and tryed to fasten the zipper, something that was a difficult to do with only one arm, until someone help her, it was Summer.

“So, you made up your mind?” She asked her cousin.

“Yes. Stopping him is the only thing that I can do right now.” Raven answered. “I wasn’t able save my grandma, but at least I can stop him from hurting my mama and mom again. You aren’t even going to try to stop me?”

“Are you kidding? When you decide to do something, even Mia can’t stop you. The only people who could do it don’t know that you are their daughter. Are you still feeling guilty for what happened to your grandma?”

“Kinda… but what happened made me remember what Grunkle told us before we arrived here. Do you remember his words?”

_No matter how much you girls prepare, remember, there is always the possibility that something does not go as you have planned._

Yes, Summer remembered those words. Preventing the separation of Team RWBY, the whole month of training, the fact that Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were hidden in the first place, Mia stealing Cinder’s powers, giving Professor Polendina Penny’s memories, everything was going well, too well. They had completely forgot about the possibility that something wouldn’t go as they had planned. They had been overconfident and believed too much in their plan, they had acted like fools.

“Well.” Raven said. “I’m leaving.”

Raven went to the door, her two swords were in the sweatshirt’s pockets, she was going to open the door when she hear Summer say, “Raven, wait.” She turned to see her partner and she found saw her holding her right fist up with a smile on her face.

_Partners in crime until the end?_

Raven smiled back and she bumped her left fist against Summer’s.

_Until the end._

.

.

.

Three red tents sat grouped together where some members of the White Fang were camping in the wilderness. Were they waiting, searching… something? In one of those tents there was an irate red-haired bull faunus.

As far as Adam Taurus knew, Roman was eaten by a Grimm during the fall of Beacon, Neo had disappeared, and the only thing that he heard about Cinder was that she had ended up unconscious under mysterious circumstances. Emerald and Mercury had told him that they will call him when Cinder wakes. All of those things had make him question his stance on working together with humans but, right now, he was more focused on another thing that was more important that his teamwork with humans, trying to found Blake or her partner. Adam really hated leaving something unfinished, and he couldn’t wait to see Blake’s face when he ended the life of her blonde partner. However, even though he knew Blake quite well, he didn’t have a single clue of her whereabouts. Then, someone entered his tent, it was one of his subordinates.

“Adam, we have trouble.”

When Adam exited his tent, he found about half of his subordinates had been knocked out and the other half were pointing their guns at the person responsible; a one-armed, blonde-haired, cat faunus girl. Adam found himself pretty surprised. That girl looked like a combination of the two women that he was searching for, but he quickly stopped caring about that. He ordered his subordinates to lower their weapons before approaching the girl.

“You must be Adam Taurus.” The girl said.

“That is, in fact, my name. Care to tell me what you want?”

“I just want to join to the White Fang.”

Raven had began to lie as she spoke. She said that a long time ago she used to believe that humans and faunus could live together until a human tried to kill her. The fight that ensued resulted in the loss of her arm. She had decided then to train herself in order to fight and defend herself with only one arm, but she hadn’t been able to go to the last White Fang reunion to join them. Then she had heard a rumor about that some faunus of the White Fang were hiding themselves in an area close to where she was. That is how she had ended up there.

“Your subordinates began to attack me before I could even say a single word. I had no choice but to defend myself.”

“Your story is interesting.” Adam said. “But I doubt what you can actually do with only one arm.”

“Well, I’ll tell you. I know how to use a sword, I know self-defense, I’m pretty smart, my semblance is the ultimate shield…” Flames began to come out of Raven body after she said that. “And… my punches are very strong.”

Nobody saw her next move coming. Raven hit Adam’s face so hard that he ended up flying back in the direction of his tent, and a few cracks had appeared on his mask. The rest of the faunus there had began to shoot at her, but the bullets barely touched Raven’s body, her flames were melting them. Adam turn to look up at the girl. He drew his sword and smiled while he clean the little part of blood from the corner of his mouth.

“This will be a very interesting fight.” He whispered “Can I know why are you so angry with me?”

Raven clenched her fist and teeth, more flames began to come out of her body. Her red eyes gave off anger and she stared back at the redhead in front of her.

“I won’t let you hurt Yang Xiao Long or Blake Belladonna ever again!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare yourself Adam because Raven is pretty mad with you and for the ones who are wondering how did Raven find him, remember that she can open portals with her Bumblebee, she just need to focus in the place or the person, well, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raven vs Adam start now!!! Just kidding, we got a little of the rest of the bees family right now and as evryone were able to see, I didn’t put the title of this chapter (Is going to be a crucial sentences in a very specific scene) so, try to guess while you read, enjoy!
> 
> Qtrlbsceci I hope that anxiety has not been a problem for you, the long wait is finally over!

“Why didn’t you stop her!?” Mia cried.

Mia had woken up shortly after her twin left. In the beginning, she thought that Raven had just gone to the bathroom, or something like that. But she quickly abandoned that idea and felt that her sister had gone somewhere else. She was scared of knowing the truth but, even so, she decided to ask Summer about Raven. Her leader didn’t lie to her, Summer told her that Raven left around 5:20 a.m and, as her twin, Mia should know where her sister had decided to go. In fact, Mia already already figured it out and that was the moment when she asked Summer why she didn’t even try to stop Raven. Instead of answering, Summer asked Mia to lower her voice as Silver was still asleep.

“You know her.” Summer said. “Once she has decided to do something no one can stop her. The only people who could possibly do that don’t know that you and her are their daughters.”

Mia clenched her fists, Summer was right. Once Raven decided to do something, no matter if that something can put her life in danger, she will end up doing it. No one would be able to stop her, except their parents, but, like Summer had said, Yang and Blake didn’t know that Raven was their daughter. Mia wasn’t going to give up that easily.

_At least I can try._

Mia left the room and Summer sighed as she began to pat her sister head. She could try to stop Mia whatever it was Mia was planning, but she didn’t. After what had happened in Mistral she knew that there was only one thing that could make Raven feel better. Of course, Summer was worried for her. Even though Raven knew how to fight with only one arm, she could be in serious danger. That was the reason why she didn’t try to stop Mia, Raven would most likely be fighting soon and Mia was the only one who could stop that fight, if she brought Yang and Blake with her.

Yang and Ruby were talking after Taiyang had told them that he was planning to return to Patch the next day, December 5th. They were trying to decide if they should go with him or stay in Vale, but Mia suddenly appeared. Without a word, she accosted Yang and dragged her away.

“I’ll return her later!” Mia called back, leaving a very confused Ruby behind her.

“Should I ask Summer about this?” Ruby thought once her sister and Mia disappeared from her range of vision.

Blake was sitting on a tree branch, just was watching the sky with nothing nothing on her mind. She was enjoying her respite until she felt something on her waist, it was a very familiar black ribbon. Suddenly, Blake found herself on the floor, next to Yang and Mia was in front of her.

“What’s going on?” Blake asked.

“Those are my words.” Yang said.

“There’s no time to ask questions!” Mia exclaimed, gaining the attention of the two girls. “We need to hurry up and help Raven!”

Hearing that made Yang and Blake worried. Something had happened to Raven? Yang and Blake turn to look at each other and, in fact, even if they didn’t say a single word to each other, they know that something serious had happened. They knew that Raven had decided to do something dangerous and they turn back to look at Mia, and together they asked “What happened!?”.

“Raven feels guilty for what happened in Mistral and, to redeem herself, she decide to deal with someone who was a threat to you two. I know that my sister is strong, but she is at a serious disadvantage with only one arm.” Mia gulped before continuing. “She decided to go after Adam Taurus by herself!!!”

After hearing that name Yang felt a pang of pain, a very painful one, in her right arm. _Adam Taurus!_ Could that be the name of the faunus who cut off her arm? The faunus who **_hurt_** Blake? Yang felt the anger growing in her. Her right arm was shaking and she didn’t care if that name was the name of the faunus who cut her arm, the only thing that she could think was that Adam Taurus was the name of the faunus who **_hurt_** Blake. That was the only reason why she wanted to have that guy in front of her so she could make him pay.

After hearing Mia, Blake’s whole body started shaking and she felt strong wave of nausea in her stomach. The moment when Adam cut off Yang’s right arm appeared in her head and Adam’s words began to resonate. _I’ll destroy everything you **love**. _ He was going to **kill** Yang. He was going to kill someone that she loved, the person who she… loved the most. Of course, Blake loved Ruby and Weiss too, but Yang was different. When or where did she finally realize this? She didn’t know, the only thing that she knew right now was, that if she and Yang decided to accompany Mia, she would see Adam again. He **will** try to finish what he started with Yang. Is that why Raven had decided to go after him!? Blake began to feel the urge to run as far away as she could, but Raven was in danger. Mia was also in danger, and Yang… she would be the one in the most danger. Blake didn’t want to go, but again, they needed to help Raven. The fear in her inside was too strong, she could not even move her body, suddenly she felt someone holding her hand, and all doubts and fear that she felt at that moment disappeared. She turn to see who had grabbed her hand. It was Yang, with her left hand, Yang was holding Blake’s right hand.

“Don’t worry.” Yang said. “If he tries to hurt you again, I swear that I’ll protect you. You’re scared and I know it, but right now Raven needs our help.”

Blake turned to look Yang right in the eyes. She felt calm, very calm. Yang was right there and it wasn’t time to worry about herself, Raven needed help. Holding hands they turn to look at Mia and, even without speaking, Mia could feel her mothers’ determination.

 _“Let’s go.”_ Mia said while she took the dark crystal out of her pocket. She focused her mind on Raven, she focus her mind as hard as she could and then slashed the crystal through the air. A portal appeared in front of the three women, Mia couldn’t stop feeling grateful that her sister had completely forgotten to ask for the small crystal back.

.

.

.

Adam knocked out the rest of his subordinates, that way no one would interfere with the fight. His opponent was a one-armed blonde girl like Blake’s partner, but she was also cat faunus like Blake. She actually looked like Blake, but her features were a little different. He wasn’t bothered about if his opponent was like a mix of the two women that he was searching for. In fact, perfect for him. If Adam couldn’t find Blake or her partner at least he can fight against someone who was a mixture of them.

Seemingly without any external prompt, they began. The only thing that Raven could do was block Adam’s sword. She knew that she could easily melt his sword with her flames, but not while she was defending herself. Adam felt a little surprised, the girl was blocking his attacks quite well, the length differences of their respective swords was pretty substantial but, even so, Raven didn’t seem to have any problems with it. She parried successfully for a while until Adam saw an opening. He grabbed the right sleeve of the girl’s sweatshirt and then he use that to throw her against a tree.

Raven blamed herself for the mistake, why did she decide to wear her twin sweatshirt? Yeah, it was because her Bumblebee fit easily in the pocket. She saw Adam’s sword slice towards her and she quickly dodged it. Raven was about to attack him, but Adam had already found Raven’s weak point, the right sleeve. Adam kick Raven’s stomach and quickly took Raven’s Bumblebee from her left hand and stuck the little black sword into the tree together with the sleeve. Raven try to undo the zipper, since there wasn’t time to remove Bumblebee. Adam started to swing again, but what Adam never saw coming was the second Bumblebee. Raven had acted and when the bull faunus sword was near her she took her second sword out from the sweatshirt pocket. The swords collided against each other, giving Raven time to break the sleeve and set herself free.

But the force of that act made Raven fall to the ground. Adam quickly put his foot on Raven’s stomach to prevent her from be able to stand back up. He was read to pierce the girl head with his sword and, when Raven saw the sword close to her and stationery, she smiled. This was the moment that she had waiting for. She dropped her weapon and flames began to come out of her body. She grabbed Adam’s sword with her hand but it didn’t cut her, instead the red sword began to melt once her flaming hand touched it. After that, Raven was able to knock Adam off of her. Quickly grabbing her own sword, she was now facing a disarmed Adam giving her her opportunity she was looking for. Her eyes were focused on Adam’s neck, she had to finish him, she wouldn’t leave him hurt her family again. But, before she could even try to kill him, something stopped her.

Her arm, feet, torso... everything was tied by black ribbons. Adam was in the same situation, his arms were tied to his torso by the same black ribbons. Raven began to fight against the ribbons, but she wasn’t going to be able to break them. The flames of her body grew stronger and stronger, but that wasn’t helping her against the ribbons. She unclenched her teeth in order to shout.

“What the fuck are you doing, Mia!?” She yelled, trying to turn to see her twin who was behind her.

“I won’t let you become a killer!” Mia shouted back.

“WHO CARES ABOUT THAT!?” Raven was trying very hard to set herself free of her sister semblance, but she know that it was impossible. Mia’s shadow ribbons were unbreakable but the flames were still coming out of Raven’s body. “LET ME FINISH HIM!!! He will hurt mama and mom again if I don’t finish with him right now! Let me finish what I started! Let me… let me… leave me… LET ME KILL HIM!!!”

Suddenly Raven felt someone slap her. Raven didn’t know why, but after that slap her desire to kill Adam disappeared like the flames of her body. She turned to see the person who had hit her, it was Blake. Now that Raven wasn’t so incensed, when she turned to look at her sister again, she noticed that Yang was also there.

“Don’t turn yourself into a killer for someone like…” Blake looked at Adam, she felt sick just looking at him. “ ** _Him._** ”

“It’s been a while.” Adam stated.

When she heard that voice, Blake bit her lip. Her body began to shake again, even though she knew that, thanks to Mia, Adam couldn’t move. Raven had also destroyed his weapon, but even so… it was hard to have Adam in front of her. _I’ll destroy everything you love._ Again and again and again, those words resounded through her head. Blake clenched her fists, this wasn’t the moment to worry about that. She couldn’t let herself feel weak just because her old “partner” was in front of her. After meeting Raven and Mia, after knowing that Yang didn’t blame her for what had happened to her arm, after spend a whole month at Beacon with her friends, and after everything who had happen since she met team SSMR, Blake had realized something and she was going to say that to Adam until…

“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH UP!!!”

Blake didn’t notice when Yang had ran at Adam, but she saw her hit him with her left arm. Yang punched him so hard that Adam flew  back into the forest, breaking four trees with his body. It was only by an act of pure reflex that Mia had released Adam before Yang hit him. After that, she released her sister. Everyone could see how mad Yang was, her hair was on fire and her eyes had changed to red. She wasn’t mad because the guy who cut her arm was in front of her, she was mad because she remembered that he had been the one who hurt Blake. Yang had hated the effect his voice had on Blake, basically, Yang was mad because that guy was Blake worse nightmare. She wasn’t going to let Blake suffer.

“Mia come with me.” Yang said.

“T-to stop him?” Mia said a little nervous, she had never seen her mom so angry.

 _And to stop me._ In her current state, Yang didn’t know what she would do once Adam was in front of her again. Yang and Mia entered the forest, leaving Blake and Raven behind. “ _Go with them if you want.”_ Raven said and Blake followed the girl advice. Even if Raven didn’t say it, Blake knew that the girl wanted to be alone, so Blake went after Yang and Mia, leaving Raven behind.

By Yang’s orders, Mia tied Adam up with her shadow when they saw him. Mia had decided to stay a few meters behind her mom once they got close to Adam. She didn’t know what would happen, but Mia was ready to tied her mom up too if she saw it necessary. Yang’s punch had broken half of Adam’s mask letting Yang see one of the faunus’ brown eyes. Red eyes against brown eyes. Yang’s right arm was shaking, and the rage inside her was growing stronger, but again, she wasn’t mad because of her arm, she was mad because the one who hurt Blake was in front of her. As Yang had promised, she was ready to leave Adam without a single tooth.

“I see.” Adam suddenly said.

Yang felt sick when she hear that voice, she wanted him to shut up.

“You survive my attack.”

Shut up

“You know what I said to your partner in Beacon?”

_Shut up._

“ _I’ll destroy everything you love._ After that you show yourself and the face that Blake made when she saw you was so beautiful; she was so scared.”

**_Shut up, don’t say her name._ **

“Even though she didn’t say a single word, I could see how important you are to her. I could see that you are the person she loves the most, more than anyone else.”

 ** _SHUT UP_** … wait… The person who Blake loves? Wasn’t that person Sun? If Adam wanted to destroy everything Blake loves… he should started with the person who Blake fell in love with. _The person she loves the most._ Yang was Blake loved one? Yang began to felt confused and Adam continued.

“Even after all this time, the likes of my Belladonna haven’t change at all.”

**_MY!?_ **

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Yang clenched her right fist, she was ready to leave Adam without a single tooth and maybe break his cranium in the process.

“DON’T CALL HER _YOURS_!”

Yang was going to pummel him, as hard, as strong as she could. She wouldn’t let him hurt Blake ever again, but suddenly her fist stopped. Something stopped her punch and she looked down to see her arm had a black ribbon in it. Her feet and her left arm too. Mia had stopped her, of course Yang had brought her along for that very reason but, even so, Yang ordered Mia to release her. However, like she had done with Raven, Mia didn’t obey.

“I ordered her to stop you.” Blake said.

Yang tried to speak, to argue her case, but she wasn’t able to do it. Before Yang could even open her mouth Blake walked over to stand in front of Adam.

When was the last time that she had seen those Brown eyes? Blake couldn’t remember, perhaps it’s have been several years. They didn’t say a single word to each other, they just were staring at each other. Yellow eyes glowering at brown-eyes, brown eyes glaring at yellow eyes, and Yang was still fighting against Mia’s shadow while Mia was wanting to release her mom. She must respect her mama’s order but suddenly, Blake put her sword to Adam’s neck.

“What? You aren’t going to kill me? You won’t have a chance like this ever again.”

“Like I told Raven, I won’t turn myself into a killer just for you.”

Adam began to laugh and say, that even if Blake didn’t turn herself into a killer, she has already done a lot of bad things while she was a member of the White Fang. Things that her friends couldn’t ever imagine and that he will be more than satisfied to tell them what she had done. That got Mia so angry she began to reduce the force of the shadow that was holding Yang. Yang was still fighting against Mia’s semblance, but even with less force. The shadow was still strong, and Blake… while she didn’t say anything, her body wasn’t shaking anymore. She wasn’t biting her lip or showing any sign of fear. Her sword was still pressed against Adam’s neck though.

“I am no longer afraid of you.” Blake said. “I shouldn’t be. You threatened me and that was the thing that scared me, but I realize that my friends aren’t weak. Raven, Mia, and the month I spend “missing” together with my team made me realize that. You are strong, and I know it. You could take Yang’s arm, but remember these words, no matter what you want to do, I am no longer afraid of you. I don’t have to run away from you or my friends, I won’t run away. I won’t kill you, I’m no longer some scared _kittie!”_

After those words, Yang and Mia watched Blake as she took off her bow and dropped it to the ground. “It’s has been a while since the last time I saw those.” Adam said seeing Blake’s cat ears. Mia was so happy of see her mama faunus part that, without notice it she had released Yang, though Adam was still tied by Mia’s shadow. Yang eyes had return to purple and the fire stopped to coming out of her hair. Yang moved to stand next to Blake, that was when Mia realized that her mom was free, but she didn’t tried to tie Yang up again.

“So this is the time?” Yang said while she picked up Blake’s bow from the ground, remembering the words Blake had said during the trip to Mistral.

_I’ll show you my ears when I think is time_

Blake nodded and she remove her sword of Adam’s neck. It wasn’t like he could do anything somce he was still motionless thanks to Mia.

“So mama finally took off her bow.” Raven said and Mia almost, _almost,_ freaked out.

She didn’t notice the moment in which her twin arrived, but Mia was in agreeance with Raven. In their future they never saw Blake using a bow or hiding her faunus ears, everything was pure silence for a few seconds until they heard Adam start to laugh.

“What a brave act.” He said. “But do you really think that people will accept you when they see _what_ you really are? I guess that your team knew that you were a faunus a long time ago, but, what about the ones who don’t know?”

Blake bit her lip, the only ones who knew that she was a faunus were Sun, Ozpin, she wasn’t sure about Velvet, and her team. But that was it, the rest of the people who she knew didn’t know about it. Before Blake could say anything, she saw Yang grab the front of Adam’s shirt, even though he was still tied by Mia.

“Listen to this and listen very carefully. I WILL protect Blake if someone makes fun of her ears, I WILL protect her no matter what!”

Yang’s right fist was clenched and the black bow was being squashed. Yang raise her fist, the first punch that she had given Adam was because she was angry, now she was going to hit him for another reason.

“Remember this.” Yang said looking Adam right in the eyes. “The next time that you try to hurt Blake Belladonna, I, Yang Xiao Long will stop you. I’ll protect her against anything and anyone who wants to hurt her. The first hit that I give you was because I was mad but this… IS FOR HURTING BLAKE RIGHT IN ME!!!”

Mia had released Adam just as Yang hit him. The punch was so hard that everyone was able to see teeth fly out of his mouth. Adam’s body crashed through several more trees before he end up on the ground. Was he alive? No one cared. Was he unconscious? After that hit… yes. Did he have several broken bones? Most likely. Yang dropped Blake’s bow after that.

“Well… it’s time to go back.” Raven said and she turn to look at her sister. “Sorry, I wrecked your sweatshirt”

“I can fix it.” Mia said and she took the dark crystal out of her pocket. She turn to look back at Raven with a shine in her eyes. “Can I open the portal? Can I? Can I?”

 _“You can.”_ Was Raven answer and Mia slashed the crystal through the air, opening a portal. Blake was staring at the bow on the floor and, unconsciously, she touched her ears. Had she made a good decision? She was thinking about reclaiming the bow but, before she could even try, Yang grabbed her hand.

“It’s time to go.” The blonde said and then she entered to the portal together with Blake. When then arrived to their destination… it wasn’t Vale. They had ended up in the middle of a forest, a forest that Raven, Mia, and Yang knew very well… they were in Patch.

“ _Mia…”_ Raven said, she sounded angry.

“I just was thinking of a familiar and quiet place!” Mia said in her defense. 

Raven sighed, she drew her special Bumblebee. They weren’t too far from of Vale. Of course, they could use a rowboat, but opening a portal was far easier. Raven was ready to slash her sword through the air when she and Mia heard, “Come on!, answer me!?” They turned to look at their parents. Blake was trying to make Yang release her, but Yang didn’t want to. Mia was going to stop the “fight” but her twin covered her mouth before that could happen. Then the twins hid behind a bush. Whatever was going on, Raven felt that neither she nor Mia should interfere. Meanwhile, with Yang and Blake, Yang had told Blake what Adam had said to her.

“He said that I was the person who you love the most, your loved one. What was he trying to say with that?” Yang asked.

“I… I don’t know!” Blake said.

“He also said that he will destroy everything you love. I don’t want to sound rude, or anything like that, but as far as I know, you love Sun. So, why didn’t he start with him? He said that he knew you, if you fell in love with someone he would know who that person was, I don’t think that he started with me by coincidence. So explain to me what he was trying to say.”

“You already said it!” Blake cried. “He knows me and that’s why he can easily recognize the person who I fell in love with!”

Ah… she had said it.

When did Blake realize her feelings for Yang? She didn’t know, but she must have realized it before the Vytal tournament. Maybe during their first semester in Beacon, maybe before the dance, maybe during the month that they spend at Beacon together with team SSMR, she didn’t know. She did know that always, _always_ , when Yang was near her… she felt really calm, protected, loved, she wanted to be next to Yang. She wanted to hold her hand, walk beside her, Blake had quickly realize that those feeling and thoughts were, well, love. That was the reason why she had felt so bad when she saw Yang attack Mercury. She didn’t want to believe that the person that she loved was turning herself into a monster the same way Adam had done. But she decided to believe in Yang, she believe in her words because she know that Yang wasn’t that kind of person.

Of course, Adam didn’t attack Yang just out of coincidence. He knew that Blake was in love with her, he knew it. Blake turned to look at Yang and she seemed pretty surprised, Blake face was red.

“I used to think that I loved Sun.” Blake said. “But he was just a crush, the things that I feel when I’m near to him, and the things that I feel when I’m near to you, are differents, very different.”

Silence.

There were several moments of silence. Blake didn’t know what to expect, maybe Yang didn’t feel the same, or maybe Yang will see her has a weirdo. She didn’t know what would happen now that she had said her true feelings…

“Am I dreaming?”

Blake met Yang’s eyes after she heard that. Yang’s face was red, equal or more than Blake’s face, and then Yang was the next to talk.

“When someone hurts you, I get mad. Of course, I get mad when someone hurts my friends, but you are different. When someone hurts you I feel an anger that I had never felt before, and the thought “I want to protect her” quickly appears in my mind. When I see you with Sun, for some reason, my heart hurts. When I thought that you had run away for me I feel devastated. Honestly, I don’t know when I began to feel this way about you.”

Yang had took Blake’s hands and she was looking her in the eyes. It was true that she didn’t know when, or where, she realized her feelings about her partner. Since they met each other a lot of things happen to them, and Yang didn’t know when she had fallen in love. Maybe that happened at the dance, she didn’t ask Blake for a dance just because she was her friend. When Yang saw her enter with Sun, Yang had felt really good because Blake’s first dance was going to be with her and not him. Maybe she had fallen for Blake even before that, but now that they had said what they thought and felt… there was no turning back. Why did they need to face Adam just to realize their feelings for each other? It was stupid, but actually, Yang felt really grateful for that. She took some air and continued.

“Hey, we feel the same way about each other. Isn’t that great?”

Blake just nodded. She was crying since her feelings have been accepted. She couldn’t feel any happier. She was loved, she had someone who she loved and that person loved her back, finally the two could have had their….

**_Chapter 21:_ **

**_Love confession._ **

“Can I kiss you?” Yang asked and Blake began to laugh.

“It’s too soon for that.”

“What!?” Yang exclaimed. They had confessed their love for each other, they accept those feeling, she can say that Blake was her girlfriend now. Why couldn’t they kiss each other!?

“I’ll accept a kiss in the cheek. Something makes me feel that we need to reserve our first Kiss for another occasion.”

Well, if Blake wanted that, then Yang would respect her decision. A quick and sweet kiss to the faunus’ cheek later and Yang couldn’t feel any happier. Blake felt a little embarrassed for the kiss, but it had felt good. Meanwhile, behind the bush, Raven and Mia were covering their, in that moment, red faces. They were embarrassed too, of course they had seen they parents kissing each other and heard them say “I love you” to each other a lot of times, but that was nothing compared to seeing their love confession.

“We just saw…” Raven began.

“….mama and mom’s confession.” Mia completed.

Raven and Mia had expected a lot of things when they arrived to the past, but seeing their parents confession wasn’t one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bumbleeby is love, Bumbleeby is life, I want them together in the vol. 4 but that’s going to take time, God bless the fanfics! Sorry WR fans but the bees are my OTP but any way, Silver next chapter is all yours, What do you thing this little girl want to do? As always I hope everyone had enjoyed leave a review, fav or follow and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	23. Silver's wish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here is another chapter, I don’t have anything to say so, as always, just enjoy.

**December 5th**

**9:00 a.m.**

**Vale’s port**

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here?” Ruby asked.

Taiyang had decided to return to Patch together with Zwei while Ruby and Yang decided to stay in Vale. So, the girls were at the port to say “Goodbye” to their father and pet. During the month of November, the parts of Vale that had been destroyed during Beacon’s fall were reconstructed successfully and the port had become operational a few days ago. Ruby had asked in hopes that her father would suddenly change his mind at the last minute, but he said that he really wanted to return to Patch. The house had been totally empty for a whole month, and someone needed to clean it. There was another reason too. After hearing that, Yang and Ruby turned to see what their father was holding in his left hand, two small bouquets, one of white roses and the other of red roses.

“Someone needs to continue the tradition of leaving flowers once a month.” He said. “Are you two sure that you want to stay here?”

“Yes.” Yang replied. “But don’t worry, we will return to Patch for Christmas. It’s only twenty days away!”

Tai smiled and hugged his daughters. “Zwei and I will wait for you two” He said before go to the ship.

Zwei barked his own “Goodbye” before following after his owner. Yang and Ruby yelled things like “See you soon!” and “Take care!” until their dad’s boat set sail from the port. In the distance, Blake, Ren, Nora, and Jaune were watching the family farewell. But, two of them weren’t paying full attention, Nora and Jaune. Nora was trying to pet Blake ears, only to be stopped by Ren, and Jaune had began to ask to himself why he was there. Pyrrha had asked Ren and Nora to take him with them. While Pyrrha appreciated the fact that Jaune wanted to stay with her… the redhead thought that her leader needed some fresh air. Weiss decided to stay with Pyrrha in his stead since she had said that she needed to ask Pyrrha something in private.

What happened yesterday after Raven, Mia, Yang, and Blake return wasn’t a big deal. The only relevant thing was seeing Blake without her bow. Ruby was happy to see Blake’s cat ears again, Weiss had said “You really look good without that damn bow,” and team JNPR was very surprised. They never suspected that Blake was a faunus but, they didn’t care either. Blake was theire friend after all, but there was something else that only Ruby and Weiss were able to notice; something in the manner in which Yang and Blake were treating each other. Holding hands, small blushes… something had happened between them. Raven and Mia looked like they knew something about it but, before Ruby or Weiss were able to ask, the twins locked themselves in team SSMR’s room with their cousins. Ruby was Yang’s sister though, so she was able to figure out what had happened. Now that they were alone, and Ruby was sure that their friends wouldn’t be able to hear them, she could easily say what she was thinking.

“So…” Ruby said looking at her sister. “You and Blake…”

“W-we what!?” Yang asked back with an evident blush on her face, causing Ruby to laugh. “Did Mia tell you?”

“Yang Xiao Long, I am your sister!” Ruby said in her defense. “You really think that I won’t notice something strange? Even Weiss noticed that you and Blake were acting like lovey-dovey yesterday. When were you going to tell me about it?”

“It was going to be a surprise for Christmas. I’m still thinking about how I’m going to tell dad that I have a girlfriend... and please don’t say “lovey-dovey” in front of me ever again. It’s embarrassing.”

“Lovey-dovey.”

Suddenly, Ruby felt her hood get pulled over her head, covering her face and eye. Yang had taken her revenge, of course. At first, Ruby felt a little surprised when she realized that her sister had gotten a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend, but she quickly found that she didn’t care about that. Yang was happy and Ruby felt happy for her... and she could tease her older sister with that now. Once Tai’s boat disappeared over the horizon, Yang and Ruby thought about going with Blake and the others back to the Hospital, or Refuge. They hadn’t decided on a proper name for the building that they were using as their temporary home, but suddenly Ruby spoke up.

“Hey Yang, How it feels to be in love?”

Something was broken, Yang felt that something was broken inside of her.  Why Ruby was asking that!? Was she was in love with someone!? Her sister… her beautiful baby sister… in love!?

 _Who?_ Yang thought. Jaune has Pyrrha, Nora had told her what had happened between those two, and, even if Ren didn’t admit it, he had Nora. Sun or Neptune maybe…no, no, and more no. Yang began to crack her knuckles and a murderous aura began to come out of her body.

“Who is it?” She said, sounding very upset. The overprotective big sister had woken up.

“Wait, wait, wait!!! Don’t get the wrong idea, I can explain!”

Silver. Silver had been the one to ask that and she had commissioned Ruby to seek an answer. Yesterday afternoon Silver had been with Ruby and Weiss and she had asked, “How it feels to be in love?” Silver had clarify that she wasn’t talking about the love that someone had for their family. She was talking about being love with someone, but neither Ruby nor Weiss had an answer. So, Silver commissioned the two of them to search for the answer and tell her the day. Ruby and Weiss couldn’t refuse because Silver had looked very excited when she had made that request and they didn’t want to make her sad.

Yang sighed. She had worried about nothing, but it was a little strange that Silver asked something like that. She was just one year younger than Ruby and she hadn’t shown any signs of being a girl interested in love, but well, Ruby had asked and Yang felt obligated to give an answer. Although, she didn’t know how to describe the feeling. Yang began to say that when she was close to Blake her heart would start to beat like it never had before and a warm feeling appeared in her inside. “I want to stay with her” or “I want to protect her” where thoughts that would appear in her mind, and she always felt calm, relaxed, protected, and very warm.

“You know that I’m not very good at giving explanations.” Yang said. “But that’s how I feel when I’m with Blake, I hope that can answer Silver’s question.”

 _“_ I see.” Ruby replied after Yang’s explanation.

Ruby put her hand on her chest, the feelings that her sister had described… she knew them. She had felt like that too, it was a nice feeling, but those feelings only appeared when she was near a certain white-haired girl. She had never paid much attention to those feelings but… was it really love, or it was something else? Ruby then asked her sister how she felt when Blake was near Sun and Yang replied saying that a very painful feeling. Her stomach would knot and that she really wanted to get Sun away from Blake. Until now she didn’t know that those thoughts were jealousy. Ruby suddenly thought about how she felt and thought the same things when she saw Neptune near Weiss. That had been the reason why she didn’t let him and Weiss partner during the secret mission that they did a few months ago. But, again… was that really love? Or was it something else?

“Get her away from me!”

Ruby had been so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t realize Blake had hidden herself behind Yang. It looked like she was running away from Nora who was insisting on touching her cat ears. Ren was still trying to stop her, but it wasn’t working. Jaune followed behind them, asking if he could return to Pyrrha yet, but he was being ignored.

“Just one touch, just one touch!” Nora said. “They look so damn fluffy!”

“Sorry, Nora. But I’m the only one who can touch her beautiful, and fluffy, ears.” Yang said.

Blake felt embarrassed, she was going to have to have a talk Yang about that later. Ruby was still lost in her thoughts about the answer that she had gotten from her sister. Weiss, if the feelings in her chest were love or not… and, for some reason, Summer and Silver were in her thoughts too.

.

.

.

According to Profe… I mean, **_Doctor_** Oobleck, Pyrrha will be able to walk again in two weeks. Unfortunately, Ozpin won’t be able to walk in at least one or two months but, right now, that wasn’t what was concerning Weiss at the moment. She had asked Pyrrha,  _How does it feel to be in love?_ In response to that question, Pyrrha’s face turned redder than her hair. If Weiss was asking her that, it meant that Nora had told her what had happened between her and Jaune. Although Pyrrha had asked her to not say anything, but….it was Nora.

“W-why ask me that?” Pyrrha stuttered.

“Silver asked me and Ruby to search for an answer to that question.”

“Silver…” Pyrrha said thoughtfully. She and Jaune only knew Silver and Mia by name, they haven’t seen them in person. “Do you mean the person Nora says is like your clone?”

“Silver isn’t my clone… at least I don’t think so.” Although Weiss knew Silver for some time, she still felt weird about the incredible resemblance that Silver have with her. “Whatever, can you answer the question?”

“Weiss, are you sure that you  only want to know the answer for that just for Silver?”

Looks like Pyrrha had seen through Weiss true intentions. She wasn’t asking just for Silver, Weiss wanted an answer for herself too. She wanted it so badly, she really wanted to know if the feelings in her chest were really love or not. If those feelings were love… should she keep them inside, or should she confess them to the person who made those feelings appear? Weiss took a deep breath and focused back on Pyrrha.

“I used to believe that I loved Neptune, but recently… when I am near to someone in specific, feelings that I have never felt before appear. I don’t know if that is love or something else.”

Pyrrha sighed. So that was the true reason…

“Okay.” The redhead said. “I’ll answer the question and, like Silver, I’m going to ask you a question. Please talk to Jaune for obtain your answer.”

“Why Jaune?”

“Because, you need to know the difference between a crush and true love. Jaune is my first love, so I can’t help you with that. But, if you remember, he used to say that he was in love with you, so I’m sure that he can help you learn the difference.”

“Okay.” Weiss answered.

Pyrrha told her what she felt, when Jaune was close to her, was protected and warm. Pyrrha’s definition of love was that, feeling that nothing, and noone, could hurt her when her leader was near and she got a nice warm feeling in her chest. A warm feeling like she had never felt before. Since she wasn’t an expert on the subject, but that was everything that she could tell Weiss, and the heiress was thanked her friend for the answer. What Pyrrha felt when she was with Jaune and what Weiss felt when she was with Ruby wasn’t too different. Even so, Weiss was still confused about her feelings. Suddenly, the door opened and Nora entered yelling, “We’re back!!!” Ren told her not to yell,  Blake was still hiding behind Yang as she definitely didn’t want Nora to try to pet her ears again, and Ruby wasn’t there. She had gone to look for Silver for give her the answer that she had gotten from Yang and finally…

“Come with me.” Weiss had said as she grabbed Jaune’s collar and drug him out of the room.

Of course, Nora asked what was going on, but Pyrrha said nothing, she just smiled.

Meanwhile just outside of the room.

“Excuse me?” Jaune said.

“You didn’t hear me? I said, ‘Please tell me the difference between a crush and true love.’ Pyrrha told me that you know the answer.”

“I didn’t mean that.” The blond said in his defense. “I mean, why do you want to know that?”

“It’s personal.”

Jaune sighed, after hearing that, he knew that Weiss won’t answer his question. So, he decided to answer Weiss’s request.

“Well, when I meet you, I thought that you were beautiful, strong, and amazing.”

“Were!?” Weiss exclaimed, she sounded upset.

“Okay, you **are** beautiful, strong, and amazing. I have never met someone like you before and I was amazed by you. You know that I grew up with seven sisters, so hearing about their love stories was very normal for me, but I had never fallen in love with someone. Thanks to those stories, I interpreted those feelings as love, but, now that I think about it, I realize it was a mixture of infatuation and respect for you. What I feel when I’m with Pyrrha is very different, I know that she is strong, but I want to protect her. That feeling just appears in my head, plus a feeling that I’ve never felt before in my chest. I didn’t feel either of those things when I’m near to you.”

“So, basically a crush is feeling respect for someone that you interpret as love?”

“You can say it that way, if you want. Talking about feelings isn’t easy, so I think that sentence describes what I try to say.” Suddenly Jaune’s face turned red, he had just realized what he felt for Pyrrha “T-this conversation never took place… please don’t say anything about what I told you.”

He knelt down on the ground to implore for Weiss’ silence. He and Pyrrha hadn’t clarified the Kiss issues yet, and as far as he knew, no one else knew about the kiss. Even so, vocalizing his feelings to someone else was already embarrassing, but Weiss then told him that Nora had already informed her, and almost every other person she knew, what had happened between him and Pyrrha. After hearing that, Jaune got up and he went back into his partner’s room while yelling Nora’s name, and Weiss was able to hear Nora reply. “They would find out sooner or later.” However, she didn’t pay much attention to that, the only thing on Weiss’ mind was searching Silver to give her the answer that she had received… or at least that was what she wanted to think.

.

.

.

Ruby was lying on the ground, she hadn’t been able to find Silver, but she was a little happy for that. Now she was able to think about Yang’s definition of love, and think about how she’d had felt what her sister had described. _When though?_ That was something that she didn’t know, all that she knew was that she had begun to feel something strange in her chest whenever Weiss was near her. She also felt something when she saw Neptune near Weiss. It was an urgent feeling of wanting to get him away for her. _Love and jealousy..._ Even if she had a definition for those words, it was still strange. The feeling in her chest, her thoughts about Weiss, Summer, and Silver, everything was just… strange.

“Love is strange.” She said out loud to herself.

“Those are my words”

Hearing another voice caused Ruby sit up quickly. Weiss walked up to, and sat herself down next to, Ruby before telling her that she had been unable to find Silver. She wasn’t in the room with her sister and cousins, and nobody else had seen her recently. It was like she had disappeared but, since Summer hadn’t said anything about it, it was more than likely that Silver was still somewhere close by. Ruby and Weiss were in silence for a while until Ruby decided that she wanted to compare the answers that they had gotten to Silver’s question. It turned out there wasn’t much difference between them; a warm feeling in the chest, the desire to protect, and be protected by, the loved one, a sense of inner peace when the special person was near. Ruby had been to only one to get a description of jealousy, or at least that’s what she thought.

“So, Yang and Blake…” Weiss said. She was happy for her friends, but still… it was a little hard to believe.

“Yeah.” Ruby replied. “Yang is thinking about how she going to tell our dad. By what she told me, it looks like Blake will spend christmas with us in Patch.”

“Come to think of it, I don’t know what I’m going to do this christmas… I don’t feel like I’m would be able to face my father.”

“Wanna come to my house?”

“I'll think about it”

They returned to silence. _Should I say what Jaune told me?_ Weiss thought.

The difference between a crush and love wasn’t something that she thought she needed to learn, but Pyrrha had insisted that she must learn, and….it was true. Weiss put her hand on her chest, when she met Neptune she thought that he was pretty cool and all and, at that time, her personality and mentality was ‘I deserve the best of the best.’ But, what she was feeling right now was something very different. Ruby was the only one who had the ability to awaken those feelings inside her but, like she had told herself many times during that day… she wasn’t sure if those feelings were love. Although Pyrrha told her own definition of love, Weiss was still hesitant. She turned to look at Ruby and suddenly she remembered something, something that she hadn’t said yet.

“Ruby.” Weiss started to speak and her partner turned to look at her and asked what happened. “A lot of things had happened, and I had totally forgotten to tell you this. Thank you.”

“Thank you?” Ruby repeated, sounding confused. “For what?”

“For what you did in Atlas.”

Oh yeah, she was talking about when Ruby said “Shut up!” to the SDC’s CEO, Jacques Schnee. Although, Ruby thought that Weiss was going to be upset with her for that, but luckily, it was the opposite.

“I was ready to tell my father how I really felt, but I was too scared to actually do it. The words wouldn’t come out of my mouth, then you showed yourself. You made me feel brave and, thanks to that, I was able to say what I really wanted to say. All of that was thanks to you, I feel very grateful with you… thank you.”

“C-come on!” Ruby said with a little blush on her face, she was embarrassed “I-I just did what I thought was right.”

Weiss’s face was blushing too. For some reason she thought that Ruby looked really cute at that moment.

 _“Just kiss each other already!!!”_ Silver thought.

She was sitting on a tree branch, watching what her mothers were doing. Silver was waiting to see a love confession! That had been the reason of why she had asked them, “How does it feel to be in love?” to Ruby and Weiss. Maybe knowing the meaning of love would make them realize their feelings but, sadly, it wasn’t working and it was making Silver upset. If Raven and Mia were able to see their parents’ love confession, Why couldn’t she!? It wasn’t fair! She had seen her mothers kissing each other and saying “I love you” a lot of times, but nothing like seeing the beginning of that. Her plan wasn't working at all, maybe she should give them a hand with that, just a little help.

“Can I know what are you doing, Silver?”

Silver almost screamed when she heard her sister’s voice, but she was able to cover her mouth. She didn’t want to be discovered by Ruby and Weiss. Summer was sitting on different branch and Silver didn’t notice the moment in which her sister had arrived.

“I just… I just wanted to see mommy and mom…”

“I know that you want to see their love confession.” Summer had totally figured out her little sister’s intentions. Since Raven told them what she and Mia had seen, Silver had looked very excited about the idea. “Raven hadn’t planned to see her parents’ confession. Neither had Mia. Even if you wanted to help them to realize their feelings, remember that mommy and mom are a little slow in the love department.”

Silver sighed, her sister was right. She didn’t know how her parents confession had gone, but she knew that Ruby and Weiss’ confession had taken a very long time. So long that her aunt (Yang) had helped them to realize their feelings. Even knowing that, Silver really wanted to see her parents getting together, then an idea come to her mind. Summer saw her sister smiling and felt that Silver was going to try to do something, and she wouldn’t be able stop her. Not that she would want to anyways. Silver disappeared for a few seconds, then reappeared. She was looking in Ruby and Weiss’ direction with a big smile on her face, Summer was curious about what her sister have done so she turn to look at her parents. Weiss was on top of Ruby, Silver had pushed Weiss so she and Ruby ended up prone on the ground. Summer turned to look back at her sister, Silver had done a very good move. 

Meanwhile with Ruby and Weiss.

Neither of them knew what had happened, but they didn’t care. The only thing that they cared about at that moment were that they were close. _Very close._ They could hear each other’s heartbeats, their quick breaths, Ruby was look at Weiss, Weiss was returning Ruby’s gaze, silver eyes met blue eyes, and vice versa. Their faces were close, _their lips were close._ Weiss didn’t know why, but she began to get close to Ruby and, even if she was lying on the ground, Ruby was doing the same. Silver was excited now everything was going as she had planned. It wasn’t a love confession, and she didn’t know how her parents will react after this, but at least she would see a Kiss! Summer was trying to hide her reaction, but she was also excited to see a Kiss. Everything was fine, Ruby and Weiss’ lips were only a few centimetres apart. They’ll be kissing each other soon, the sisters were in silence, waiting and the….

“Hey, Silver!”

Now Silver freaked out. She let out a little scream and fell off the branch and to the ground.

Summer asked “Are you fine?” but Silver didn’t care about herself. She quickly turn to look at Ruby and Weiss. They had separated and they were sitting on the ground as if nothing had happened. Silver bit her lip, so close. She had been so close to seeing her parents kiss! She already knew who had scared her, but even so, she turn to look at Yang. The blonde quickly apologized for having made Silver fall from the branch. As Yang approached, they noticed that Blake was with her too. Ruby and Weiss were deeply blushing, but they turn to look in Silver’s direction, the two of them felt really glad that Silver had appeared, but suddenly a question popped into their heads and the two girls’ faces turned more red. _How much did Summer and Silver see?_

“Did something happen?” Summer ask to her aunts.

“No.” Blake said. “Yang heard that Ruby and Weiss were having problems trying find Silver, so she decided to help, and I decided to help her.”

“S-sorry again, Silver.” Yang said. She was feeling very bad with herself for had scared the girl.

Silver’s face was stoic and emotionless after Yang’s apologize. After Summer and Blake helped her to get up of the ground, Ruby and Weiss gave her the answer that they had got to the question that she had asked them.

“I see.” Silver said without any emotion in her voice, but then another idea come across. She smiled and turn to look at her parents “By the way, have any of you ever fallen in lo…”

“That’s enough.” Summer said, before grabbing Silver by the hood of her sweatshirt dragging her away. “See you tomorrow!”

Team RWBY was able to hear Silver cry “It’s not fair!!!”

Ruby and Weiss sighed and turn to look back at each other, they still a little embarrassed for what almost, _almost,_ had happened. For some reason, seeing Summer and Silver made them feel happy. Ruby took Weiss’s hand and the heiress didn’t offer any resistance to that. On the contrary, she also wrapped her hand around her partner’s. After seeing that, Yang turn to look at Blake. Although she said nothing Yang could understand, Yang knew that she was thinking the same as her. Of course Yang didn’t care about that, she was more than happy with the idea of Weiss being with Ruby than the idea of some random guy being with her little sister. Yang and Blake smiled to each other before they looked back at their teammates with only one thought in mind.

_“They are very slow.”_

December 5th had been a very peaceful day, but what team RWBY didn’t know was that the next day would be: The calm before the storm. Even Mia and Silver didn’t know what awaited them, but Summer and Raven knew very well.

**December 5th.**

**3:00 p.m**

**Remaining time until Exitium awake: 1 day with 20 hours.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Silver (and White Rose fans) but please understand that your mothers are slow, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed it, leave a review, fav or follow and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	24. Broken sisterhood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new year, a new chapter, it had been a while since the last time that we saw each other but however I don’t have anything to say so, enjoy!.

**December 6th**

**11:00 a.m.**

**Remaining days until Exitium awake: 1 day.**

“How does your arm feel?” Mia asked her sister.

“It’s perfect. Thanks, Mia.”

Team SSMR was in Ozpin’s room with Qrow and Glynda. Mia had finished the repairs on her twin’s right arm and, right now, Raven was busy recovering it with bandages in front of a very shocked Ozpin, Qrow, and Glynda. Of course, they had wondered why Raven’s right arm was always covered by bandages, but they never expect something like that.They also quickly learned that Future-James was the one who had designed Raven’s arm and taught Mia how to repair it. Speaking of James, he had called Summer yesterday and told her that everything was fine on his end. He had been declared innocent for what happened at Beacon, and now he was trying to reduce Roman’s prison sentence. After all he, owed him one. Neo was also fine, since she couldn’t speak, everyone believed that Roman had forced her to do what she had done, so she was helping James while she learned sign language.

“And…” Qrow said, breaking the silence. “What’s the plan?”

“I’ll use my shadows to keep Exitium motionless.” Mia said.

“I’ll use my speed to help Summer and Raven reach him.” Silver added.

“I’ll use my flames to protect Summer of any attack.” Raven spoke up.

“And I’ll use my silver eyes to defeat him.” Summer finished.

It sounded like a very simple, and most likely successful, battle plan. Yet, Summer and Raven were very aware that something could derail it, but the girls had confidence. Summer and Raven had been thinking about a plan B just in case, but the adults didn’t care if the girls had a plan B, C, D, E, or all of the alphabet. They weren’t going to let four young girls do a dangerous mission alone like that.

“I’ll go with you four.” Qrow suddenly said, but the girls didn’t show any hint of surprise.

“I will as well.” Glynda said, and again, the girls didn’t seem surprised.

“Well… We were waiting for that.” Summer said “I mean, to all of you, what we are going to do sounds dangerous, but I’m happy with you two helping.”

Sadly. for Ozpin, although he wanted to help, his injured leg would not let him. On the other hand, Qrow and Glynda were waiting for a sign of surprise from team SSMR, but well, there was no reaction from the girls. The next thing that Summer and Raven said was not to the adults, but to their sisters. After tomorrow, team SSMR was leaving Vale and they would never return. Today was the last day that the girls will be able to see their parents, because of that, Mia and Silver had permission for do whatever they wanted. Hearing that make the girls faces begin to shine and, without another, word they left the room.

“You two don’t want to do the same?” Ozpin ask to Summer and Raven.

“Nah, Summer and I spent a lot of time with our parents when we were at Beacon, now it’s Mia and Silver’s turn.”

“By the way, what will you four do after tomorrow?” Qrow asked. “Supposedly you all will disappear on December 22nd.”

“We’re going to be tourists.” Summer answered. “Remember, the Remnant that we know is totally different to the Remnant of this age.”

After that, Summer and Raven looked towards the window and expecting to see their sisters at any time. Summer and Raven felt that Mia and Silver were going to do something that would get them in trouble.

Speaking of Mia and Silver, their first stop was what used to be Pyrrha’s room, but was now team JNPR’s room. They didn’t say hello, or something like that, the only thing that they did was yell to advise to Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, and Jaune respectively:

_If you don’t want to wear glasses, be careful with cameras and long hair looks pretty cool on you._

_Stop using a ponytail!!!_

_Don’t cut off your hair!!!_

_The next time that you see an Ursa, don’t run away from him, you will get a very cool scar._

Mia and Silver abandoned the room after that, leaving a very confused team JNPR behind. The next thing the girls will did was something individual. Silver’s next stop was where her parents were and Mia went to search for her own parents.

.

.

.

“Listen, about what happened yesterday… I-I honestly don’t know what happening to me. B-but, don’t get the wrong idea, I wasn’t trying to kiss you, or anything like that. A-and about when we were holding hands… The hell that’s going to work!”

Weiss was busy talking to a tree but, in her defence, she was practicing. Yesterday, shortly after she realized that she was holding Ruby hand… her face turned totally red and she ran away without saying anything. Weiss hadn’t spoken to Ruby since then, but Yang insisted to her that she should clarify what happened. Though Weiss didn’t know why Yang suggested that to her instead of Ruby, now there she was, talking to a tree to practice what she was going to say to Ruby. Despite the rehearsal, she felt that what she was doing wouldn’t help her.

“Calm down.” Weiss said to herself. “Let’s try it one more time.”

“What are you doing?”

When Weiss heard Ruby’s voice she felt her body freeze. She turned quickly to look at her partner, they had originally planned to meet each other at one o’clock. It was only around 11:30, though. Ruby explained that she have nothing else to do, so she had decided to come a little early, but she didn’t expect to find Weiss there. At Least, that's what Ruby told her partner, but the truth was that she was planning to do the same thing that Weiss was doing.

“I-I think that you can tell me what you wanted to right now.” Ruby said.

“Y-yes... How I should start?”

Silence.

Neither of them were able to speak, they weren’t even able to look each other in the eyes. The image of Weiss above Ruby and their faces so close to each other was pretty fresh in their minds. Both of them were embarrassed, but not for that incident. The feelings that they felt when they were holding hands was what made them feel embarrassed. Plus, since yesterday, the constant thoughts about “Is this love or not?” made them unable to see each other without that question in mind. They both knew that they should clarify those feelings as soon as possible, the problem was that neither of them knew how to do that.

“I was searching for you two like crazy, and the only thing that I found was this.”

“What happened, Silver?” Ruby asked, feeling relief at the appearance of the girl. At this point, seeing Silver appear out of nowhere had become very normal for team RWBY.

“Well, I just wanted to say that something happened and, after tomorrow, you two won’t see me around here for a very long time. So, before I go… I just want to see something.”

They wouldn’t see her any more? Ruby and Weiss turn to look back at each other, if Silver was going to “disappear” after tomorrow, that means that Summer would be gone too. Of course, they didn’t forget about Raven and Mia, but Ruby and Weiss were more worried about the “Rosch” sisters. Why did they need to leave? Neither of them wanted that. They were going to ask “Why?” but, before any of them could open their mouths, they heard Silver say “I’m sorry.” The next thing that they knew was that they…

Were kissing each other on the mouth.

Silver had pushed them, how? Well, Ruby and Weiss were distracted she was able place a hand on the back of each of their heads and push them together without any difficulty. Silver pulled out her Scroll and took a picture of her mothers’ kiss.

“I’ll use this picture as wallpaper.” She said, holding her scroll to her chest. “Well, I hope we can see each other in the future. Bye-bye!”

Silver had sounded sad saying that and suddenly disappeared, but Ruby and Weiss didn’t notice. They hadn’t noticed what was happening around them since their kiss started, they were feeling too good. Lack of air eventually forced them to separate, and now they were looking each other in the eyes. Joy, embarrassment, warmth, a lot of feelings were twisting around inside of them. A big mix of happy feelings, that kiss… it had been awesome. Though they didn’t plan it, now neither felt confused anymore.

_Is this feeling love?_

Finally, both had an answer for that; a definitive answer. Ruby put her right hand on her chest as she stared into Weiss’ eyes. Weiss was gazing back at her too. Just a sentence, one of them just needed to say a single sentence of three words, and after that… who knows. No one knew who would be the first to speak. Ruby felt herself fill with determination and she opened her mouth, but the words that came out of he mouth…

“Do you want to do it again?” Maybe Ruby spoke without thinking enough.

“Yes” Weiss answered instantly.

Her mind was racing too much to think about her answer, but suddenly she turn to look in the direction in which she believed Silver had gone. That was the moment when she remember what the girl had said. “S-silver said that she took a picture…”

“And that she was going to use it as a wallpaper.” Ruby completed, looking in the same direction.

Ruby and Weiss glanced at each other for a moment, their faces turned completely red and they turned back in the direction they thought Silver had run off in.

“Silver, come back here right now!!!”

Chasing a girl who can move at the speed of the sound… sounded impossible. But, at least they should try.

**Meanwhile, in another place.**

Blake was reading a book while her head was resting on one of Yang’s shoulders. Since neither one of them had been in a romantic relationship before,merely sitting outside watching the sky counted as a date for them. Something was off though, Yang was pretty quiet and, knowing her, that was very strange.

“Can I know what happened?” Blake asked.

“I was just thinking about Ruby and Weiss. You know, those two should be talking right now.”

“If you are waiting to see them and hear something like ‘ _Guess who became a couple’,_ then you’ll be waiting for a while.”

“I know, I know.”

Although she said that, Yang was still wondering what was happened with Ruby and Weiss. She couldn’t believe that Weiss was so slow in the love subject, though she can’t blame Ruby. She was her sister and, because of that, she knew that Ruby was more interested in seeing a new weapon than getting a girlfriend. Even so… those two were pretty slow and it was frustrating! What happened next didn’t surprised Blake or Yang. Mia appeared in front of them and there was a few leaves caught in her hair. She must have been hiding in a tree but, Since when? Who knew. Blake closed her book and, like Yang, she turned to look at Mia.

“We want to know how long you were hidden.” Yang spoke up.

“Em… No.” Mia said. She took a deep breath and stared at her parents, this was the last day that she will be able to see them, but she wasn’t sad. They will meet again in the future.

“Did something happen?” Blake asked.

“Yeah. Something happened and, after tomorrow, Raven and I will leave Vale, together with Summer and Silver, and we won’t return for a really long time. Don’t worry, we will meet each other again in the future. So, before I go, I just want to say something to you two.”

Leave? Raven and Mia will leave Vale… no. Neither Yang nor Blake wanted that. They didn’t want the “Xiabon” twins to leave them and, even if Mia said that they would meet again in the future, they didn’t know how much time it would take. There was always the chance they wouldn’t see Raven and Mia ever again, no matter what Mia promised. That thought made them feel really scared but, before one of them could say anything, Mia spoke up again.

“I’ll treasure all the time we spent together. Every time I saw you two together I felt so happy and I’ll miss you. Raven will miss you too, but she is too shy to admit it. Blake, remember that you don’t have anything to be afraid of. No matter what happens, your friends and Yang will protect you. Yang… I’m sorry for what happened with your mom, I feel really bad for not being able to do more for her, and please remember that you’re not alone. You never were and never will be. Also, you two look very cute together.”

Mia’s voice sounded sad, and there were some tears in the corner of her eyes, but she quickly recovered her cool and continued speaking.

“I just wanted to wish you a very happy life, have a lots of dates, kiss each other as much as possible, wait for the right age to do dirty things, and have a lot of children and a long, happy life together.”

After saying that, Silver appeared next to Mia. The black-haired girl took her partner’s hand and the two disappeared. Yang and Blake were processing Mia’ words; have a lot of children, kiss each other, have a long, happy life. Everything was synonymous of… Yang and Blake’s faces turned red. Mia had wished them a happy **_married_** life. They turned to look in the direction Silver had left in and, without a single word, they began to chase them, even if it was impossible. Before they realized it, Ruby and Weiss were with them trying to reach Silver. Ruby said something about a compromising photo when Yang asked her about her reason for chasing Silver, and Yang said something about some embarrassing things that Mia had said.

When Silver reached her limit of using of her semblance, Mia put her on her back. After reaching her limit, Silver couldn’t move her legs for a few minutes. Starting to run with Silver on her back, Mia was fast but, for obvious reasons, she wasn’t as fast as Silver. If she didn’t keep her speed up… team RWBY could catch them at any time. The rest of that day, everyone watched how Ruby and her team chased after Mia and Silver, but the pursued didn’t look worried. In fact, they looked very happy. Summer and Raven, after sharing the whole plan for the next day with Qrow, Glynda, and Ozpin, watched their parents chase their sisters. “You two aren’t going to help them?” Qrow asked, but the girls didn’t answer. They just smiled, that scene brought them good memories. That’s how December 6th came to an end.

.

.

.

It was almost 1:00 a.m on December 7th. Mia and Silver had been able to escape from their mothers and, when they entered team SSMR’ room, the two fell asleep very quickly. They were very tired and, soon after that, Summer and Raven found out that the same had happened with their parents when they went to their room. Now the whole building was silent. In the dark filled the hallway, the only noise that could be heard were a few snores. In that moment almost every single person of that building was asleep, _almost_ everyone. Summer and Raven were awake, but they weren’t in their room with Mia and Silver, they were outside. Summer suddenly announced that she needed to go somewhere and she left Raven alone. The blonde sighed and, without turning around, she spoke to the shadows.

“Mia, I know you are there. Come out.”

From the shadows, Mia revealed herself. Raven didn’t even turn to look at her sister, instead she was stared at the moon.

“Do you and Summer even sleep?” Mia suddenly asked.

For six years Mia had wondered that. Whenever she had a nightmare, or when she woke up to use the bathroom, she always found her sister and cousin awake, no matter how late it was. Mia really wanted to know why Summer and Raven spent almost every night awake.

Raven sighed. “What you really want?”

Mia sighed as well. Her sister had seen through her, she and Silver had got the feeling that Summer and Raven were up to something and, knowing their sleeping problems… they could do that “something” at any time. If Mia was honest, she was still tired and she really wished to be in the bed, but at that moment, she knew her twin was going to do something. She needed to stop her from any crazy ideas that she had in her head.

“I’m your sister, your twin, and because of that, I got the feeling that you will do something tonight. With your sleep problems, that could happen at any time. Grunkle probably got the same feeling, but you made sure to create a false pattern. I’m sure that he believe if you, or Summer, try to do anything without anyone knowing, then four or five in the morning is the ideal time for you two. So he won’t come to stop you.”

“What are you really try to say?” Raven asked, she was still staring the moon.

“You and Summer are going after Exitium by yourselves.”

Raven didn’t answer and Mia clenched her fists. It was supposed to be that team SSMR plus Qrow and Glynda would go to the “Dark Zone” at 10 o’clock in the morning using Raven’s special Bumblebee. All of that had been a lie. Neither Summer nor Raven planned to follow that. Without Raven’s Bumblebee, no one would be able to go after Summer and Raven. Yes, there was the little black crystal that Mia had, but Raven had asked the crystal back the previous day. Now Mia could see how her sister was holding the black crystal with her right hand and, without a single word, the blonde squeezed the crystal until it turned into powder. Now Raven’s Bumblebee had become the only key to access the “Dark Zone”. Mia remained silent, but her fists clenched tighter.

“Why…” The black-haired girl said. “Why do you and Summer always do things like this!? I know that Summer has the silver eyes power, and your semblance can protect you from whatever, but… but even with that, even if you two have a plan, even if Exitium will be at 50% of his strength… you two won’t be able to handle him!!! It’s crazy!!! One wrong move and you two **could** die!”

“Mia.” Raven said, she was still giving her back to her sister. “You don’t know anything, understand absolutely nothing. Summer and I have something against Exitium that you and Silver will never understand. About what happened six years ago, about of how our parents died, the reason for my insomnia, you do not know absolutely nothing.”

“Of course I know! B-before we came to the past Grunkle and Auntie told me and Silver… they told us what really happened the day that our parents died.” Mia was able to notice how her sister’s body tensed. She didn’t know what kind of outcome the conversation would have, but she continued regardless. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about it!? You know that even knowing that, I wouldn’t have blamed you! I even could have helped you with the insomnia due to the nightmares! If you and Summer are doing this for revenge, at least let me and Silver help. You two always bear the responsibility, during six years you two have suffered in silence. Raven… at least leave me be useful for you, I…”

Whatever it was Mia wanted to say… she wasn’t able to say it. Something had hit her really hard in the face and she had ended up in the floor. With a hand on her right cheek, she turned to look at her sister. She never, _never,_ no matter what kind of crazy or dangerous thing she had done, Raven had never hit her before. Raven’s left fist was shaking and her red eyes reflected anger.

“If you knew what really happened six years ago, then you should know that I became the worst of the worst the day that mom and mama died. Like Summer, I have something very personal against Exitium and I won’t let anyone interfere, especially you, Mia.”

Mia clenched her teeth, now there wasn’t turning back. She wiped off the small thread of blood who was coming out of her nose, and her orange bracelets turned into gauntlets. Mia had activated her Dragon Fists. She clenched her fists again, her body was shaking but, even so, she faced her sister.

“You don’t leave me with another option.” Mia said while she show her fists “I’ll stop you here and now.”

A long “Ah” come out of Raven’s mouth which had devilish smile. She began to crack the knuckles of her left hand and it was like her red-eyes were shining in the dark.

“So you think that you can win a battle against me?” Raven said sardonically. “A little sister trying to defeat the older one, this will be a very interesting fight.”

.

.

.

Summer was close to the place where Mia had left their ship and she didn’t feel surprised when Silver appeared in front of her. Summer’s face was totally stoic while Silver’s showed a mixed of worry, fear, and disappointment. The sisters were looking each other right in the eyes, but Summer didn’t ask why Silver was there instead of in bed, she already know why her little sister was there. On the other hand, Silver also knew what her sister was planning to do together with Raven. Silver knew that it was dangerous, she know that there was the possibility that her sister wouldn’t come back. She also knew why her sister was doing that, all the things that Summer had hide for six years, all the pain that she had bear in silence, and Silver felt guilty for not having noticed it all before. Then Silver broke the silence.

“Grunkle and Auntie told me and Mia what really happened six years ago. They said that you and Raven will try something like this. They told us the truth.” Silver said with a weak voice.

“I see.” Summer replied evenly. “Even though Raven and I made them promise us to not say a single word about it. I kinda figured that they would break that promise.”

“T-then, why you didn’t tell me the truth?” Silver asked, her voice still sounded weak and it looked like she would start crying at any moment. “You know that I would not have blamed you for what happened. I would have given you my support. You have suffered in silence for six years Summer, **six years**! You have not even been able to have a good night's sleep in all this time. You and Raven want to go after Exitium just for revenge, but let me and Mia help, please.”

Suddenly Summer stepped up right in front of Silver, her silver eyes didn’t show a single emotion.

“You said it, like Raven, my hate against Exitium is personal. You already know what really happened the day that mum and mom died, so you should understand that I am the worst person that you could know. You don’t have anything to do with this, so don’t interfere.”

After that, Summer put one of her hands on her sister’s chest and she pushed her. Silver fell to the ground and, without turning back, Summer began to make her way back where Raven was until she hear the sound of a gun shooting. She feel the scratch of a bullet on her right cheek, Summer turn to look at the person behind her. Silver was sweating and panting while she was holding her Petals Dance. She was the shooter, Silver had shot her sister.

“What are you doing?” Summer said while she cleaned the small amount of blood dripping down her cheek.

“I… I WON’T LET YOU!” Silver cried. “I won’t let you go! I won’t let you die! I’ll stop you here and now!”

Silver saw how her sister’s mouth reveal a small smile, then several glyphs appear behind Summer. Silver felt her body freeze, Summer took a kind of rectangular, white object from the back of her dress. The white thing began to transform into a large, sharp, and well kept white scythe. Silver gulped, it had been a long time since she had last seen Summer’s White Rose.

“I think that I have to remind you.” Summer said looking at Silver. “That as the little sister, you must obey me, your big sister.”

Silver clenched her hands against her sabre. She was scared, it was the first time that she had a serious fight against her sister. Sure she had fought against her in some training sessions, but that was something very different. Right now, they weren’t in a training session, Silver took a breath and then she stood up, her blue eyes were staring down Summer’s silver eyes.

“I’m sorry sis, but I won’t obey you.” Silver said. “Because this little sister has reached the rebelliousness age.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are geting bad! Our adorable pair of sisters had broken their sisterhood and things didn’t look good for Silver and Mia, anyway, place your bets about how everything is going to end, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.
> 
> And now, some words of the editor.
> 
> Heya! Mr. Ilax here. Stuff happened and the reason for delays have been due to me and not Geo. I apologize, I did not know that I was depriving you all of a certain kiss for so long! But, Geo actually has quite a few chapters completed and waiting for me to look at, so expect more things in the next week!


	25. Summer vs Silver and Raven vs Mia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sisters fight!!! Wait…that’s no nice and as you see the countdown for the end of the fic has started, well, enjoy.

Neither of the Rose-Schnee sisters made a move. Silver felt relieved when she saw the glyphs that appear behind Summer had vanished, but Silver knew that her sister hadn’t summoned those glyphs just to scare her. The only thing that Summer had summoned in front of other people since she learned how to use her semblance had been her signature blizzard of petals, but she quite capable to summoning more things, and Silver knew that. Since Summer started suffering from insomnia like Raven, they had trained together during the night and that allowed Summer learn how to summon things that even her little sister hadn’t seen. Finally, Silver took a deep breath, clenched her right hand around the grip of her sabre, and decided to be the first one to attack.

Though, Silver didn’t have a single clue about what she was actually going to do. Temporarily rendering Summer incapable of fighting was her goal, but Silver didn’t know how she would do that until a small idea come to her mind. She decided to try to knock Summer out from behind. With her speed that should be easy enough, so she tried it. After Silver disappeared from Summer’s sight, she didn’t react, she didn’t even move. Taking advantage of the lack of reaction, Silver got behind her sister. She was still using her semblance, so hitting Summer with the pommel of the sabre should be easy but, suddenly, Silver saw Summer turn and track her movements. That should have been impossible because Silver was still moving herself at the speed of the sound. Before she could think about it more, Silver found herself being crushed by something large and strong. She turned to her right for see what stopped her and saw a glyph with a big white arm coming out of it.

“I know your running patterns.” Summer said facing Silver. “Even with that speed, I can predict where you are and how you want to attack me. I’m your big sister after all, you don’t have a single move that I don’t know.”

_At least that’s what you think._ Silver thought. She had one move that Summer hadn’t ever seen. She had gotten the idea from Mia only a few days ago after reading an old comic book. Silver took another breath and activated her semblance again. She wasn’t going to run, instead Silver’s body began to shake quickly before beginning to vibrate uncontrollably. Silver felt a little thread of blood come out of her nose, but she continued with whatever it was that she was doing. Summer was trying to understand what her sister was doing as well, but everything became clear when she saw the arm that was crushing Silver begin to shake and, after several seconds, the arm broke in thousands of pieces. Silver had set herself free, but her body was still shaking even though she had stopped using her semblance and the blood was still coming out of her nose.

“That was an interesting move, focusing your semblance on the rest of your body instead of just the legs is pretty inspired. Sadly, you need more training with that.” Summer said pointing her White Rose at Silver.

Quickly, Silver grabbed her Petal Dance when she heard a shot. She deflected the bullet that had come out of Summer’s, weapon sending it into a nearby tree. It was a dust bullet because, when Silver turned to look at the tree, a little amount of ice had appear on it. As quick she could, Silver stood up, her legs were shaking and she still had blood on face. She had began to wipe the blood off while staring at her sister. Summer was able to see growing anger in Silver’ eyes.

“Liar!”

The next thing that Summer knew was that she was blocking Silver’s sabre with her scythe.

“You promised!” Silver cried out with a mix of anger and sadness in her voice. “You promised me six years ago that there’s no way you would die and leave me alone! You lied to me!”

“I only said that, but I never promised that to you.”

The sister separated after that, went back to staring each other down and waiting, waiting to see who was the next to attack. Silver’s teeth were clenched tightly and her the knuckles on her right hand started to turn white as she gripped her sabre. She was mad with her sister, her sister who had been to one in say that, no matter what, dying on this mission wasn’t an option. Her sister who had been the one to tell her to not blame herself for the accident. Her sister who had been the one who always told her, “I won’t ever leave you alone.” Why was Summer now doing the opposite to all the things that she had told her through the years!? Silver had made up her mind, she was going to attack Summer again, but she suddenly noticed several white birds flying in her direction. Summer was using her semblance again and Silver began to protect herself, knocking and slashing the white birds. She finally broke them into small pieces and that was the moment when she realized that there was a glyph beneath her.

White and red petals whirled around her. Silver felt the “Blizzard” had begun to lift her up off of the ground. When the petals finally disappeared, Silver noticed that she was several meters above the ground and she was now falling. She look back at Summer as she fell, Summer was holding her scythe in a manner that looked like she would cut Silver in two at any time but, she instead hit Silver with the handle of White Rose. The younger sister felt the consequences she fell more quickly and impacted against the ground. She didn’t faint, but her body certainly hurt due the hit and, as soon she could, Silver reached down to pick her weapon up. As she went to grab her sabre, the sound of gunfire resounded around the place and, the next thing that Silver knew was that her feet were immobilized by ice. Summer had shot several dust bullets at ground by her legs. Petal Dance was just a little far from her, so Silver had began to hit the ice with a nearby rock. She could use her “new” move, but it was dangerous.

The ice encasing Silver’s feet didn’t break and, as a last hope, Silver threw the rock that was in her hand, but Summer dodged it very easily.

“I must admit.” Summer said. “I feel very proud of your determination.”

“Shut up!” Silver screamed with tears coming out of her eyes. “You told me and Mia that no matter what, dying isn’t a part of our mission. You told me that you won’t die, that you won’t leave me alone! You’re a liar!”

“Sometimes a beautiful lie is better than horrible reality.” Summer replied. “You really think that Raven or I would tell you and Mia something like: “We plan to go after Exitium by ourselves and we won’t come back, take care.””

“That isn’t everything!” Silver said while more tears streamed from her eyes, and then she look at her sister again. “You’re an hypocrite!!! When you got your scars you told me to **_don’t_** blame myself, that it wasn’t my fault! I was the one who decided to go to that place with Mia and, because of that, you and Raven get hurt. But you still blame yourself!? It’s had been six years Summer, Six years!!! It’s wasn’t your fault or Raven’s! Why can’t you understand that!?”

Summer body was shaking, and her hands tightened around her scythe. Silver was able to notice a little shine in Summer’s silver eyes, it looked like Summer was going lose her cool at any moment, but she quickly took a breath, a very long breath to calm herself.

“Silver, even if you say that isn’t my fault, to me it’s the opposite. My hands full of blood, our parents bodies near to me, having nightmares about that is something that could easily you of your sleep. In your case, the grimm were the ones who left the scars but, in my case, I was the one who did it. Say Silver, do you know why I don’t use my semblance or why my weapon is basically a white version of mommy’s?” Summer looked at her sister, Silver shook her head. “My semblance makes me remember mom and that make my heart hurt. My White Rose is a constant reminder of what I did. These last six years haven’t been easy for me and a lot of things had happened to Raven since we’ve arrived, she must feel worst than I do. That’s why defeating Exitium is the only thing that we can do to redeem ourselves, even if we have to put our lives in danger.”

Silver whispered her sister’s name and then Summer moved in front of her, her left hand was resting in Silver’s shoulder and her right hand had turned into a fist. Summer smiled at Silver and with tears in her eyes and said. _“I’ll miss you, my little and important sister.”_ The next thing that Silver felt was a huge pain on her face and then… nothing.

**Meanwhile, Raven and Mia’s side**

Mia could see in the dark and Raven couldn’t. That had to give Mia some advantage, or at least that was what she thought. Raven dodged her twin’s punches very easily although they were fighting in the middle of the night surrounded by darkness. With the disadvantage that Raven couldn’t see very well, Mia found herself very surprised, but she remembered that her sister had always helped her during training sessions. So the fact that Raven could easily dodge Mia’s attacks wasn’t strange.

“I know all your techniques, Mia.” Raven said.

The blonde waited for an opening in Mia’s defense, before stop and grabbing Mia’s right arm. She threw her twin onto the ground but Mia managed to dodge Raven’s foot that was aimed for her stomach. Between the twins, measuring strictly physical strength, then Mia would easily win, but the physical strength doesn’t matter if your opponent knows where to hit to leave you unconscious. That was something that Raven knew how to do very well. Raven wasn’t using her Bumblebee, something which make Mia a little upset, it was like Raven was trying to tell her, “I don’t need a weapon to defeat you.”

“Even with that, you’re still at a disadvantage.” Mia whispered.

Raven could know all of Mia’s moves, the blonde didn’t inherited the ability to see in the dark and Mia had one thing that could go very unnoticed in the dark. Without Raven noticing, Mia’s right eye change from purple to yellow and soon Raven found her right foot tied with her twin’s shadow. Mia didn’t waste time and she hit Raven right in the face. The blonde managed to free her foot, but her whole body got tied by the shadows. She turned to look her twin in the eyes and noticed how Dragon Fists had returned to their default from of a pair of bracelets. It looked like Mia had won.

“You’re a hypocrite!!!” Mia whimpered. “Why are you doing the opposite of the everything that you always told me!? You…”

“Mia.” Raven said with a quiet voice and a stoic face. “You shouldn’t think that you already won.”

After that, and as quick as she could, Raven took a little flashlight out of her jean’s pocket and “shot” a ray of light right in her twin eyes. The light made Mia cover her eyes, the sudden change from dark to light was too much for Mia and she felt Raven tackle her. Mia’s Shadow thread could be unbreakable, but if she got distracted the shadow would disappear, a weak point of her semblance that only her family knew. Maybe Raven objective was to ram Mia against something, but Mia wasn’t going to let that happen to easily. Mia put her arms around Raven to try to stop her, Mia’s feet began to scrape the ground and, in a matter of seconds, the twins began to roll together on the ground.

Mia didn’t release Raven, nor did Raven release Mia, but they occasionally managed to land a strike on each other, but the roll didn’t seem to stop. Mia was finally able to stop the roll with herself on top of Raven. The black-haired girl’s right knee was on her sister’s stomach and her arms had Raven’s arms caught between the ground and Mia’s hands. They were glaring at each other, purple to back down from red.

“Hypocrite!!!” Mia yelled this time while she began to look at her twin’s right arm. “You told me to don’t blame myself for what happened to your arm, you told me that dying on this mission was forbidden! You also told me to NOT do stupid and dangerous things by myself! Why are you doing the opposite!? You dumbass!”

“I’m may be a hypocrite, but this is the only thing that I can do to redeem myself. And I CAN blame myself for what happened six years ago. To you, yes a Grimm was the one who took my arm and not you, but in my case, I was the one who did it.”

“But you didn’t want to do it! It was an accident, AN ACCIDENT! Mom and mama were smiling! You know that they would prefer to die before hurting you or me. They didn’t blame you, that’s the reason why you don’t need to blame yourself!”

“You really think it’s that easy? I know that! I know that mom and mama didn’t blame me! I don’t have to blame myself but, do you have any idea of how hard it is to live with that memory in your head every single fucking day!? These last six years had been hard for Summer and me. Since we’ve arrived here, things have just gotten worse. I was unable to save grandma and I made mom suffer for that. Defeating Exitium is the only thing that I can do for redeem myself, I don’t care what happens to me.”

There were some tears coming out of Raven’s eyes. There were very few times in which Mia had seen her sister cry, and most of those moments had been in the last few days. Mia whispered her sister name and Raven suddenly lurched forward, using her forehead to hit Mia’s nose. Blood began flow and, in a reflexive act, Mia released Raven’s arm so she could plug her nose. Raven used all her force to shift Mia’s knee off of her stomach but Mia, in a last ditch effort to prevent herself from falling to the ground, used her left hand to grab her sister’s hair. Raven began to hit her sister’s arm and, in a matter of seconds, Mia found herself on the ground and quickly looked up at the blonde. Mia’s body froze when she saw a huge amount of fire coming out of Raven’s body, she was very mad. Slowly Mia turn to look at her left hand and felt a great fear grow inside of her when she noticed that there were few strands of blonde hair in her hand, around four or five.

Everyone knew that Raven really only hated it when someone outside of her family messed with her hair or ears, but Mia knew that in that precise moment… she had crossed the line. Even if they were family, even if they were twins, Raven wouldn’t forgive Mia for pulling out some strands of hair.

Before realizing what exactly was happening, Mia found Raven in front of her. Raven had grabbed her sister’s hair to prevent escape, and the fire was still coming out of her body. She kneed her sister right in the stomach, a hit that literally left Mia without any air in her lungs. She fell to her knees with her arms around her stomach. Mia didn’t know that Raven could hit so hard, but things had not ended there. Raven’s foot impacted with Mia’s face before she could recover. Mia felt a rain of blows fall on her, one punch after another, sometimes another kick. Mia didn’t know how many hits she had received, or how much time had passed, but something was certain, it was the most physical pain Mia had endured. Once Raven finally stopped, Mia had ended up face down on the ground, unable to stand up with blood gushing from of her nose and mouth. She had her right arm resting on the ground while her left arm was acting like a support to separate Mia’s face from the dirt.

Mia looked down at her sister’s prone form. The fire had stopped coming out of her body, but even so, Raven’s face was completely emotionless. Mia grit her teeth, she didn’t feel angry with her sister, she only felt angry with herself. She felt useless, she couldn’t even stop her sister. Was that weak? Raven sighed and a little smile appeared on her face.

“I must admit it, you have improved your abilities. As your sister, I feel really proud of you.”

“Then… let me help you.”

Raven’s smile disappeared. She raised her right leg, she was going to give her last attack, but Mia noticed something strange on her sister’s face; regret. It was like Raven regretted whatever she was going to do.

“Sorry.” Raven said. “But I don’t want to lose you.”

_And I don’t want to lose you too,_ Mia was going to say, but she was barely able to open her mouth, when she felt a strong pain in the back of her neck. Her face hit the ground and she remained there, her body was immobile. Raven cleaned some drops of blood that were on her cheek, it wasn’t her blood, it was Mia’s. It was from the moment when Raven hit her in the nose. Raven had never hit Mia before, not even once, and now… she felt really bad with herself for what she had done, but she didn’t have any other options.

“For Oum, I never thought that you would be able to do something like that to Mia.”

Raven turned to look in the direction that she had heard the voice, it was Summer. She was carrying Silver on her back.

“And I thought that you would never dare to hurt Silver.” Raven replied while Summer was placing Silver on the ground next to Mia. There was blood on the young girl’s nose and there was knuckle marks over Silver’s left eye. Summer sighed and began to look at the little drops of blood on her dress. Hurting Silver was the only thing that Summer had never done before and she felt horrible with herself for that, but there wasn’t time for those feelings. Summer turned back towards Raven, the blonde nodded and, without a single word, she took Bumblebee and slash it through the air, a portal appear in front of them.

“Do you think that we did right?” Raven asked while glancing to her unconscious sister and cousin, Raven was seriously regretting what she had done to Mia.

“I’m asking myself the same thing.” Summer said while she was looking at her sister, the thought that Silver will have a black-eye from her the next day made Summer feel guilty. “But I think that we did the right thing because… I couldn’t ever be able to bear losing Silver.”

“And I won’t be able to bear losing Mia.”

Without another word, they made eye contact.

_“Partners in crime…”_ Summer whispered

“... _until the end.”_ Raven whispered back.

They entered to the portal together, both their hearts heavy with the regret that they hurt their sisters, but they didn’t regret their decision to fight against Exitium by themselves. Even if costs them their lives, because the last thing that they wanted was to lose their sisters like they lost their parents.

.

.

.

Mia’s head felt heavy and her neck was hurt tremendously. She opened her eyes and the first thing that she saw was a ceiling. It was disorienting, she didn’t know where she was, but even so, she decided to try to sit up, but her body began to hurt. Her face, feet, stomach, almost all her body hurt.

“Don’t move too much.” Glynda words hit her ears. That was the moment when Mia realized that she was in Ozpin’s room. Qrow was giving Silver, who had regained conscious before her, a bag of ice for her left eye. Mia was still disoriented, and her head was dizzy, so the word “What?” was the only thing that was able to leave her mouth. Qrow was the one to answer.

Qrow confessed that he had gotten the feeling that Summer and Raven were going try to do something dangerous in the middle of the night and, knowing them, they would try to do that thing between the four and five of the morning. What he ended up finding was Mia and Silver unconscious on the ground, with blood on their faces and signs of blunt trauma on their bodies. Now that Mia and Silver had woken up, he ask them what had exactly had happened, and where Summer and Raven were. He had searched for both of them but he didn’t find either of them. After hearing that Mia, looked at Silver and Silver looked at Mia, both of them had just remembered what had happen. Silver threw the ice bag across the room and began to touch her left eye while Mia put her right hand on the back of her neck.

“T-they decided to go after Exitium by themselves…” Mia whispered. “We tried to stop them… everything was in vain… they beat us and left… what time is it? Someone tell me the time!! How long have we had been unconscious!?”

“Calm yourself!” Glynda said while she put her hand on Mia’s shoulders. “Qrow found you and Silver at 3:40am and right now it is 9:50am.”

9:50… that mean that Exitium will awaken in about an hour and ten minutes. They still had time to go after Summer and Raven but… how!? Raven had destroyed Mia’s dark crystal, so going to the “Dark Zone” was totally impossible. Mia clenched her teeth, even if she wanted to help her sister and cousin… she couldn’t. Mia had began to feel impotent and useless, her sister and cousin were in danger and she couldn’t do anything for help them. Then an idea came to her mind, a little light of hope, her grandma’s sword; she used to use that sword to open portals. The sword must have a compartment filled with dark crystal powder. They needed to get to Patch as soon as possible. Mia quickly turn to look at Silver and it looked like she had the same idea.

“Let’s go.” Mia said while she stood up. “We’re wasting time.”

The two girls began to go towards the door, they had very clear idea what they had to do. They needed to get their ship, go the Patch, take the sword, open a portal, and help their sisters, even if they didn’t want it. Suddenly Mia and Silver felt someone grab them by, in Mia’s case, her shirt, and in Silver’s case, the hood of her sweatshirt. Mia and Silver looked back to see who was stopping them, it was Qrow.

“Can I know where you plan on going?” He asked.

“Isn’t it obvious!” Mia retorted. “We going to help our sisters, even if they don’t want it! Let us go, you’re wasting time.”

“I don’t mean that!” Qrow said, making Mia and Silver look him in the eye. “Summer and Raven deceived us. Glynda and I were supposed to accompany you and now, don’t tell me that you two are planning to go after your sisters by yourselves.”

“And, so what? Do you have a problem or something like that!?” Silver said.

Mia quickly looked back at Silver. There were only a few time in which Silver got upset enough to snap at people, this was one of those times. Mia turned away a little because, when Silver got mad… she really got mad.

“Even if you have a plan, one wrong move and you four will die. I know that neither of you is weak, but it’s still dangerous.”

“We came from a very shitty future, we know how powerful Exitium is, this isn’t the first time that we put our life in danger and…” Silver clenched her fists, she was wasting time but now there wasn’t turning back. Right now, whatever she wanted to say she was going say. “It’s supposed to be that we **_shouldn’t_** exist right now! We just came here to change our timeline and prevent a lot of fucking things, so, WHO CARES IF WE DIE!?”

“I care!” Qrow yelled back. “I already lost my sister, I don’t plan on losing another member of my family!”

Mia began to feel bad and sad after hearing that, she looked back at Silver, but it did not seem that she was calming down. She was feeling sad, but still… she still looked upset and she was clenching her fists.

“I understand.” She said. “I really understand, but still… this is something personal between Exitium and us. Summer and Raven are strong, stronger than me and Mia, but like you say, a wrong move and they could die. Because of that, we must be the ones to go after them. I don’t know how many things they had planned to do before we arrived here in the past, but since the beginning, Mia and I had planned to defeat Exitium together, with our sisters.”

“Do you really think that I don’t have something personal against him too? Salem was basically the female version of him. Essentially, he was the one who killed my sister!”

“AND HE MADE OUR SISTERS KILL OUR PARENTS!”

Silence.

Silver was trying to catch her breath, Mia was clenching her fists, neither of them, not even in the worst of situations, had wished to reveal that information. Before anyone was able to ask a question, Mia began to talk.

“Or at least, that is what our sisters think.” She said, trying not look at anyone but Silver. “Exitium’s heart and mind are rotten and full of darkness, those feelings are so strong that he can corrupt the hearts of people. He has the ability to turn people into grimm. We don’t know how, but Summer and Raven heard about the silver eyes and they thought that if they accompanied our parents, Summer would be able to help them. Mom, mama and aunties… they began to turned into grimm in front of them, Summer and Sis took our parents weapons and began to run away…”

Mia bit her lip, she didn’t feel like she was able to say it, but even if she didn’t complete the story, it was easy to deduce the result.

“So Summer and Raven were the ones who…” Glynda was started to speak but she was interrupted by Silver.

“It was an accident. Our sisters didn’t wanted to do that. It was like when you accidentally hit someone while you are playing with them. In the moment they just closed their eyes and, before realize it, they saw our parents stabbed by their own weapons, weapons which Summer and Raven were holding. The reason why Exitium never attacked Atlas was because Summer was there, she had almost awoken her eyes’ powers then and there, but the trauma had been too strong. It was just an accident, they really didn’t want to do it, but…”

“Summer and Raven don’t look at it like that.” Mia continued. “From their point of view, they are our parents’ killers. Silver and I thought that if we made them spend time with our parents pastselves, that if we spent time as a family, they would realize that they didn’t need to blame themselves. But, in the end, that didn’t work.”

“Since when did you two find this out?” Qrow ask.

“Before we arrive to the past.” Mia answered. “After realizing that Summer and Raven had gone after our parents, you and auntie decided to go after them too, and the first thing that you found were our sisters crying and covered with blood. They never talked much about the incident, but auntie and you quickly figured out what had happened. Aside from you two, no one knew that until right before we time-traveled. You two told us the truth, even if you promised Summer and Raven that you won’t tell us the true. The reason was very simple, Summer and Raven are still blaming themselves for that and, knowing them, the probability of something like what is happening right now was very high. Grunkle… your futureself told us… that you didn’t want our sisters end up the same as the people from whom they were named after.”

Qrow sighed and turned towards Ozpin and Glynda. He only looked at them briefly before he turned back to look at his great-nieces. The two looked very sad and he was feeling very frustrated with himself. In some strange way, he had make Mia and Silver talk about something very difficult, but he could understand why his futureself had told them the truth. The last sentences that Mia had said… Summer Rose had been killed by Salem and Raven Branwen too. Now Summer Rose-Schnee and Raven Xiao Long-Belladonna went to fight against Exitium… of course he won’t let his great-nieces end like his friend and sister. He sighed again and made his decision.

“Well, as you said, we’re wasting time. Let’s go and help those two.”

“Grunkle.” Mia said. “Didn’t you hear us? We said that this was something between the four of us.”

Team SSMR had arrived to the past with three cans of anesthetic, two of them had been used to incapacitate Cinder Fall, so there was still one can. That was the one Mia was taking out of her shorts pocket. Both Qrow and Glynda had hardly been able to say, “Don’t you dare…” before being sprayed by Mia. They both fell unconscious to the floor and Mia looked at her scroll find out the time, 10:15. Qrow and Glynda should wake up in about 12 hours. Mia glanced at Silver and Silver nodded. They turned to look at Ozpin, there was no need to leave him unconscious, his leg was still broken and it wasn’t going to heal for another few months. He could hardly stand even with his cane’s help, he wasn’t a problem, so Mia and Silver went to the door.

“Are you two fine with this?” Ozpin suddenly asked, after all he was the type of person who listened first and talked later. “Summer and Raven don’t have to blame themselves and you two try very hard to make them understand that. But still, leaving like this, leaving a friend and a family unconscious, leaving your parents without telling them who you really are, are you two really fine with that?”

Oh man. Why Ozpin always need to say something like that? Of course they weren’t fine with that, they… well Mia, felt bad for what she have done to Glynda and Qrow. They both really felt bad for leaving their parents like this, without letting them know who they really were, but… that wasn’t the moment to worry about it.

“Yeah.” Mia said while she opened the door. “We’re fine with that. We leave Grunkle and Glynda in your hands and… see you again in the future.”

“I’m sure that you will still be the headmaster when we attend Beacon in the future” Silver said. “And Glynda will still be a professor, so, like Mia said, see you again in the future.”

Without another word, the two left.

.

.

.

“Fuck!” Mia screamed while she hit the ship’s control panel.

There wasn’t fuel in the ship, or more specifically, the fuel tank had been damaged. Someone had made a hole in it and Summer or Raven were most like the ones responsible for that. After all, the four were family, so the two of them must had thought about what would happen if Mia and Silver woke up. They try to use the ship to arrive to Patch more quickly, if they used a rowboat they would arrive to Patch after the eleven o´clock. Mia bit her lip trying to think about what they should do while Silver looked at her Scroll. It was 10:20, they were running out of time and then she turned to look at her cousin.

“Mia instead of staying here and wasting time, we should go to the port and take the first rowboat that we see. We’re running out of time.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Mia answered, giving the control panel another hit. “Let’s go or it will be the 10:30 before we realize it.”

With Silver’s semblance, they would arrive to the port in a matter of seconds. After that the only thing that they need was row like a pair of crazy people to reach Patch before eleven o’clock. Silver was the first in leave the cockpit and Mia decided to hit to the control panel one last time. It wasn’t like it would start working because of that, but that was the only way Mia could vent her frustration and she hear Silver yelp. Mia panicked, did someone follow them? If so, who? Mia pulled her anesthetic can out of her pocket, whoever it was, he or she will end up unconscious in no time.

When Mia come out, she began to look for Silver but quickly noticed a small white bird who hit her in the hand, making her drop the can. After that, the bird disintegrated and disappeared. Before Mia could move to pick up the can, a black blade whirled out of her peripheral vision and sliced into the can, spreading its contents over the ground. It was then that Mia noticed that someone was holding onto Silver to prevent her from using her semblance.

“Can I know what you two are doing?” Mia heard.

The white bird who had hit her, a bird that had been summoned with an specific semblance, the black blade who had destroyed the can on the floor, the person who was holding onto Silver, the voice she had heard. Mia and Silver knew everything to well, quickly Mia began to look in the direction that she had heard that voice and she found herself face with face with her aunt, Ruby. Weiss was next to her, Blake was holding her sword, and Yang was the one who was restraining Silver.

“What are you two doing?” Ruby asked again “And where are Summer and Raven?”

“I…I…I…” Mia’s body was shaking and she could hardly get get any words out of her mouth. “Cla-cla-classi…”

“Don’t you dare say “Classified”.” Weiss said. “We made up our minds and we want an answer. Since we met all of you, we realized that you know things, a lot of things, things that a normal person shouldn’t know. We want the answers and this time we won’t accept “classified” as one of them. By the way, Yang, don’t apply much force on Silver. We want to stop her, not hurt her.”

“I understand, I understand.” She said looking down at Silver. “I’m not hurting you, right?”

Silver didn’t answer, she was shaking like Mia.

“Mia.” Blake said, putting her right hand on one of Mia’s shoulders. “We just want to know the truth, whatever it is, we can bear it.”

That was the last thing that Mia wanted to hear, she fell to her knees. Silver had some tears in the corner of her eyes when she saw her cousin. Mia put her hands and head on the ground, she was bowing in front of her aunt Ruby, since she was the team leader, Mia needed to say everything in front of her first.

“M-Mia, what are you doing?” Ruby said feeling confused herself.

“Help us!” Mia cried. “Summer and Raven… Summer and Raven are in danger.”

After hearing that, team RWBY looked at each other, what was going on? Yang had let go of Silver but, instead of running, she did the same as her cousin and then turn to see each other, neither of them knew if it was a good idea to tell the truth at that moment, but they needed help. Summer and Raven needed help, and they had wanted to say the truth a long time ago, in different kind of situation. Right now that didn’t matter, they didn’t know if what they were about to do was correct, they didn’t know if the people in front of them would believe their words, but in the current situation… they really needed their parents help. They need their help and not as friends, they needed their help as a family. Silver was still staring at Mia, she didn’t feel like she was able to say a single word, so Mia took a breath and began to talk.

“We don’t know if you are going to believe us.” She said. “But right now we really need help. We know things that we shouldn’t know because we aren’t from this time, and our names aren’t Mia Xiabon and Silver Rosch.”

“W-wait a minute.” Ruby said, trying to understand what she had heard “So your names aren’t Mia and Silver… then that means that Summer and Raven’s names aren’t Summer and Raven? And what do you mean when you say, “We aren’t from this time”?”

“My name **is** Mia, Silver’s name is Silver, and our sisters names are the same, but we lied about our surnames.” Mia took another deep breath and prepared for what she was going to say next. There was no turning back now, but right now that was the thing that she care about. She brought her head up and began to look at her family, her parents more than others and Silver was doing the same. “Like I said, we’re not from this time, we come twenty years into the future and our true names… our true surnames are, Mia Xiao Long-Belladonna and Silver Rose-Schnee.”

**Remaing time until Exitium awake: 20 minutes!.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man the fic is coming to the end….but at least Mia was able to tell the true, let’s wait how their parents are going to react, on the other hand Summer and Raven….just…let’s wish them luck because they really going to need it, anyway, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a review, fav or follow and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	26. Beginning of the end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that I leave a cliffhanger in the last chapter, so, let’s start with this.

After failing to chase down Mia and Silver, and with the light of the day almost gone, team RWBY decided to return to their room. It was just one of many empty room that they randomly picked. Since there were only two beds, they had decided to do the same thing that they did in Beacon, share them. Ruby shared with Yang and Weiss with Blake. Weiss had been the one who came up with the idea of that combination. After she finding out that Yang and Blake had become a couple, the last think that she wanted was to let them sleep together. Okay, Weiss knew that they were a pair of responsible seventeen year old girls, but still… you could never be sure.

The first thing that they did was climb into bed, they were incredibly tired, but Yang asked Ruby about the picture that Silver had taken. It had been the reason why she and Weiss were chasing her, but instead of answering, Ruby face turned completely red, and she quickly covered it with the bed sheet and said. “I won’t talk about it!!!” Weiss’ face was also red and in, as revenge, she asked about what Mia had said to make Yang and Blake chase her. The couple felt embarrassed thinking about what transpired, and their faces turned just as red. After that no one dared to talk, not a single word, and they quickly fell asleep, but, without any reason in particular, Yang woke up in the middle of the night.

There wasn’t a reason for it, she didn’t had have a nightmare nor did she need to go to the bathroom. She was just awake at was the 6:30 a.m., according to her Scroll, so she decided to try to go back to sleep. It was too early and she didn’t have anything important to do but, she couldn’t, something would not let her sleep. It was a thought, a thought that Yang had tried very hard to ignore, a thought about the maidens’ story. Her mother had told her that the story was real and, of course after the things that recently happened, Yang didn’t doubt it. The four maidens, the silver-eyed people, Salem, and last but not least, the hermit who was now known as Exitium. According to the story, he will awaken five days after Salem’s death. Since the maidens and Salem turned out to be real, so, he should be real too. But, there was another thing in her head and this time it was a question about Rae. _How do she know about Salem?_ Not only Rae, but also the whole team SSMR; Summer, Silver, even Mia had a lot of secrets. Yang tried, she tried very hard to forget those thoughts and sleep again, but she couldn’t, she just couldn’t.

“Can’t sleep?” Ruby asked “Neither can I.”

“How long have you been awake?” Yang replied, looking at her sister, she really hadn’t noticed that Ruby was awake.

“About half an hour, you?”

“Like twenty minutes. Did you have a nightmare?”

“No, I just… just was asking to myself something about Summer… and Silver… and Mia… and Raven. Those four are full of riddles, like, how did Summer learn to use her eyes’ powers? Or, how and why do they know us? Why do they look like us? How did Summer and Silver know Roman and Neo? Or…”

“How did Summer know how to train someone with a summoning semblance? Why did Summer and Silver seem to know my sister? Why do they seem to know everything about us?”

“How and why do Raven and Mia know Adam? How did Mia know about Heaven academy’s secrets room How do they seem to know things that a normal person shouldn’t know?”

That was the moment when Ruby and Yang noticed that Weiss and Blake were also awake. Weiss said that she had woken up around forty minutes ago and Blake said that had been awake since five o’clock. Seems that everyone had woken up for the same reason, questions about team SSMR. Raven and Mia were one year younger than Yang, Weiss, and Blake, and Summer had to be the same age as Ruby. Silver was the youngest of them, but even she seemed to know too many things. All four of them were full of mysteries and questions, questions that they wouldn’t answer, but that wasn’t all. Every member of team SSMR looked exactly like one of them; Summer looked like Ruby, Silver looked like Weiss, Raven looked like Blake, and Mia looked like Yang. That just can’t be normal, they were like combinations, Summer and Silver were like a combination of Ruby and Weiss, and Raven and Mia were like a combination of Yang and Blake.

“And that isn’t all.” Yang said, winning her friends attention before she turned to look at her little sister. “Remember what I said about the dream in which I talked to my mother? Well, now I know that that wasn’t a dream, it was real and what she told me…”

Yang began to tell them about her ‘dream’. She spoke about every single thing her mother had told her, the maidens, Salem, the silver-eyed people, Exitium, why she had leave and… what had really happened to Summer Rose on her last mission. In the beginning, it was very hard to believe but, for Blake, the story made a lot of sense. The Brown shine that had appeared on Cinder Fall’s body when Mia put a crystal ball on her back, that shine must had been the maidens powers. The place she and Mia went after Mia opened a portal… everything made sense. Everything made sense for Ruby too, though she had some doubts about the maidens. She quickly remembered that Summer had tried to make her awaken the silver-eyed powers and Cinder’s strange “semblance”. As for Weiss, everything was very hard to believe, but, for some reason, she couldn’t doubt what she was hearing, something inside of told her that she must believe everything.

“So, Salem was the one who killed my mom and your mom.” Ruby said, mostly for her own benefit, but everyone heard her. “But… How did Rae know about her?”

“I’m asking myself the same thing.” Yang answered “Supposedly, knowledge of Salem was a very well kept secret and very few people know about her, but Rae, even Mia, knew about her. Why? How?”

“Don’t forget that Raven and Mia knew Adam.” Blake said. “And I’m pretty sure that they weren’t members of the White Fang. How do they know him?”

“Also.” Ruby began. “Summer and Silver know Weiss’ sister, Roman, Neo, they even know an Atlas army general, that just can’t be normal.”

“I’ve had enough.” Weiss said while she sat up on the bed. “I have had enough of asking question and getting ‘classified’ as the only answer.”

“Yeah.” Ruby said. “Okay team, I made up my mind. We are going ask Summer, Silver, Mia and Raven our questions and we won’t accept ‘classified’ as an answer. We will get real answers! Team SSMR is full of mysteries but that ends today, let’s go find them.”

After everyone got dressed they made their way to team SSMR’s bedroom. It was already 9:15 a.m. since they had talked for a very long time. When they reached the girls’ room, the door was open and there were no one in there, the room was totally empty.

“Don’t tell me that they ran away.” Ruby said.

It looked like that was what actually happened, until they heard someone scream “WHO CARES IF WE DIE?” from the next room. The voice was unmistakable, it was Silver’s voice. They decided to keep quiet and listen to what was going on in the other room. Although the walls were only made of wood, it was difficult to hear what was being said. All they could understand was that Summer and Raven were blaming themselves for something that neither of them had wanted to do and how they had decided to go after someone who was very powerful. Team RWBY was also able to hear how Mia talked about something that her Grunkle had told her, but since Ruby, and the others, couldn’t her very well thanks to the walls, they didn’t catch the entirety of what was being said about the people from whom Summer and Raven were named after. Then they heard a _crash_ , as if someone had fallen to the floor, and, after that, they heard someone open the door to the next room. When they peered out of their own door, they saw Mia and Silver running to who-knows-where and, without thinking twice, team RWBY decided to follow them. Thank Oum Silver didn’t use her semblance. Ruby and the others raced down the hall, completely focused on getting answers to their questions.

.

.

.

_Our true surnames are, Mia Xiao Long-Belladonna and Silver Rose-Schnee_

There was total silence after those words. Mia and Silver’s true surnames were **_Xiao Long-Belladonna_** and **_Rose-Schnee_** respectively.

“S-so you two are like, long-lost relatives of us?” Yang had said, maybe the rest were thinking the same thing, but there was one problem, Why were Ruby and Weiss’ surnames together? Why were Yang and Blake’s surnames together? More importantly, Mia had said that she and Silver, and consequently Summer and Raven, came from **_twenty years_** in the future. Was that even possible? In response to the silence, Mia and Silver turned to look at each other and they both nodded. The two of them then pulled out their respective wallets and took out a picture.

“This is the last picture that we took together with our parents.” Mia said while she gave her picture to Yang and Blake. Silver was doing the same with Ruby and Weiss.

“Neither of us is good with words, so, we think that the picture can help make the four of you understand what we are trying to say.” Silver said.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang began to inspect the pictures and… they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

In Silver’s picture, she and Summer seemed to have been seven and eight years old respectively. Silver was wearing her sister’s red-hood and Summer was wearing her little sister’s sweatshirt. Summer was sitting on her mother’s shoulders and Silver was being embraced by her mom, or better said, Summer was sitting on Weiss’ shoulders and Silver was being embraced by Ruby, at least an older version of them. Ruby was wearing a white sweatshirt and she looked much taller, her hair was a little longer. What was more noticeable on her was the big scar on the right side of her face, her right eyelid was completely shut. Weiss also looked a little taller and her hair was much longer. She was wearing Ruby’s red-hood and she looked very embarrassed, but she also looked happy. On the back of the photo was the next sentence “The hood-family!” By the handwriting, it seemed as though Ruby had been the one to write it.

In Mia’s picture, she and Raven seemed to be about nine years old. The both were sitting on their parents shoulders, Raven was sitting on her mama’s and Mia on her dad’s. Yang didn’t look very different from what she looked like now, though her right arm was covered with bandages. She looked a little taller and her hair was the same still the same length. She and Mia were wearing fake cat ears, yellow for Mia and black for Yang. Blake also didn’t seem very different in the photo. The only difference was that Blake’s hair was short, only a little longer than her shoulders. On the back of the photo there was written “Cat pack!!!” in Yang’s unmistakable handwriting.

The four looked, and felt, very surprised and confused. Those photos, those **_family_** photos, not could be… they turned to look at Mia and Silver.

“Ruby and Weiss, you two are… you two are…” Silver said with a few tears coming out of her eyes “My parents.”

“Yang and Blake.” Mia said, trying very hard to not start crying like Silver. “I think that I don’t need to say it.”

Each member of team RWBY was experiencing a lot of mixed emotions but, for some reason, no one could doubt about what Silver and Mia had said. If that was true, then a lot of things made sense. Like how team SSMR seemed to know that something would happen before it actually happened. It was because they already knew it, they knew things that they shouldn’t know at that moment because it was information from the future. Summer, Silver, Mia and Raven came from the future to prevent a lot of things. While that was awesome, what made team RWBY feel the biggest surprise was the girls’ parents’ identities. Ruby and Weiss were Summer and Silver parents, Yang and Blake were Raven and Mia parents, learning something like that would be shocking for anyone.

Ruby was still staring at the picture in her hands, Summer and Silver looked very happy, Weiss looked embarrassed but happy at the same time. Ruby had never thought about getting married or having kids before, but that changed when she realized her feelings for Weiss. She loved her and had thought about marrying her in the near future. Although she hadn’t told her “I love you” yet, and now… she didn’t know what to think. Summer and Silver, Silver and Summer, they were her kids, the kids that her futureself had with Weiss. Now the resemblance that Summer had with her made far more sense. “Summer”, of course Ruby would name one of her kids after her own mother, and then there was Silver. Silver’s personality was just like Ruby’s own personality; the love for fairy tales, the weapons, and the cookies. Now Ruby could understand why Silver wanted to spend a lot of time with her and Weiss, because they were her parents. Ruby turned to look at Weiss and her cheeks turned pink with the thought of marrying her. Turning back towards Silver, Ruby saw that she was crying. Now that Ruby knew the truth, she didn’t think twice and threw herself at Silver, at her daughter, and she began to hug her. She was more than certain that Silver had wanted to tell the truth a long time ago.

Weiss felt her head get a little dizzy. She had always seen herself as the SDC, as the boss, and end up getting married to a person her father picked for her, or something like that. Until a couple of days ago, the day that she had confronted her father, the day Ruby had help her see what she really wanted for her future, the day that she realized her feelings. When Summer was teaching her how to use her semblance, Summer must have been using the same methods that her futureself used to teach Summer about summoning. Now Weiss could understand why Silver wanted to get her and Ruby together, because they were her parents. Summer and Silver were her daughters, the kids who born of her relationship with Ruby, and she couldn’t feel more happy. Although she hadn’t said “I love you” yet, but Silver had made her and Ruby kiss. Maybe she could use that when she felt ready to talk about her feelings but, suddenly, Weiss’ happiness disappeared. She remembered what Summer said a month ago about her parents. “Our parents died six years ago,” If Summer and Silver came from twenty years in the future, that meant that she and Ruby died fourteen years from now. She turned to look at Silver and quickly saw how Ruby was hugging her. Weiss sighed, it was hard to think about how she and Ruby would die and leave Summer and Silver alone but, at least right now, they were with Silver.

Blake was looking at her own family picture. Of course she was happy to know that her relationship with Yang grow, even to the point of getting married. She really was happy to know that, but having a family was strange. Blake had been an orphan since ever, well she knew her parents, but the time that they had spent with her was pretty short, so she had very blurred memories of them. She had never thought about forming a family with anyone. Things changed when she and Yang become an official couple. That day had been the happiest day in her whole life, she was loved by someone. Something that she had never felt before, and now, Blake knew that she have daughters. A beautiful pair of twin nonetheless. Now she understood why she felt a special connection with them; it was her motherhood trying to tell her that Raven and Mia were her kids. They were the kids that she had with Yang. Blake quickly notice that her futureself wasn’t wearing a bow. That make her feel happy too, she had lost the fear of showing her faunus ears. She got married to the person she really loved, she had had a little pair of twins, she had formed the family that she never had when she was a kid. She turn to look Mia and noticed how she was trying not to cry. That made Blake remember that, in the future, she and Yang would have early deaths. The girls came from twenty years in the future and Raven said that their parents die six years ago. That meant that Raven and Mia become orphans when they were only ten years old, Blake approached Mia and, without a single word, she began to pet her head. Mia began to cry and threw herself to Blake crying “Mama!” Blake hugged her as tightly as she could, it was the only thing that she cared about at that moment.

Yang was probably the one with the most mixed feelings. She was happy to see how her relationship with Blake would end and the idea of getting married to the one she loved was something wonderful. Now Mia’s resemblance to her make sense, it was because she was her daughter. Then there was Raven, _Even if you can’t see me, I’ll watching you._ Yang’s mom’s last words began to resound in her head. Her futureself had named one of her daughters “Raven” and curiously was the one who inherited the redeyes. Yang knew that her own eyes changed to red when she was mad, but this was different. Rae’s eyes didn’t look liker her eyes or like Blake’s, Rae’s eyes looked like Raven’s. Rae had inherited her grandma eyes, Yang felt as though she would start to cry at any moment. She was happy, so happy, she will get married to the person she loved the most, she will form her own family, Raven and Mia will be part of her life in the future. She had never thought about naming one of her kids after her mother but, right now, she began to love that idea. She turned to see how Blake was hugging Mia and began to feel a very kind and warm feeling in her chest. The strange connection that she felt she had with Raven and Mia now made a lot of sense. Thinking about getting married to Blake and forming a little, but happy, family make her feel happy, so happy, Yang had never felt so happy.

“M-mommy…” Silver sobbed breaking Ruby’s hug.

“Y-yes” Ruby said, she felt really weird. Hearing Silver calling her mommy was strange right now since Silver was only one year younger than her. “What happened?”

“I’m really happy to finally tell the truth but…” Silver was cleaning her eyes and then began to look up at her parents. “We need to help Summer and Raven.”

Hearing that made Mia break her mama’s hug and clean the tears off her face as well. That was right, Summer and Raven still needed help, how much time they had wasted? They were running out of time, she turned to look back at her parents and aunts.

“We **will** answer whatever, but I can’t talk about the details right now. We are wasting time, hurry up and follow us.”

Ruby turned to look at Weiss, Weiss at Ruby, Blake looked at Yang, Yang at Blake, Summer and Raven were in danger. They couldn’t have a family reunion without them and they **WILL** ensure they had one, their kids needed them.

.

.

.

Raven was lying on the ground and Summer was sitting next to her. Ever since they arrived to the “Dark Zone” they reviewed what they would do and, after that, they began to wait. They had to wait until eleven o’clock. Summer glanced at her Scroll, 10:57, the time was near. Raven was looking at the “Sky”, if she could use that word to describe it, but she was also feeling bad with herself. Being here made her remember what had happen to her grandma, and she couldn’t feel worse, if only she had been faster and stronger…

“It’s almost time.” Summer said, standing up and helping her cousin for do the same.

“What?” Raven asked when she realize that Summer was looking at her bandaged arm.

“Nothing… I was just remembering…” She answered while she unzipped part of her dress so Raven saw a little part of her chest, the small part of a big scar was what Raven could see. “The promise that we made in the name of our wounds.”

Summer was looking at her scar, Raven was looking at her right arm. Six years ago, after the grimm incident, they had sworn in the name of their respective wounds. They had sworn that, no matter what happened in the future, they will protect their sisters. But, in the end, they had broken that promise and, making things worse, they had been the ones who hurt the people they swore to protect no matter what.

“We’re a pair of terrible sisters.” Raven said.

“And a pair of horrible daughters.” Summer responded as she look at the time on her Scroll. “But doing this is the only thing that we can do to redeem ourselves.”

“You said it.” The blonde said and then she held up her right fist. “Partners…”

“…in crime…” Summer said while she was raised her left fist.

 _Until the end,_ the two said hitting their fists, the hour was, 10:59.57…58…59….00.

Some cracks began to appear on the ground and the black clouds began to move, leaving a red circle in the sky. The ground began to move as an earthquake started, and Summer and Raven could not say a single word, the two were totally focused on the ground which had begun to shine. Thunders began to sound and the clouds around the red circle had began to shine thanks to lightning accompanying the thunder. More cracks appeared on the ground, and this time it was looked like the ground was opening itself. Summer and Raven were using each other for support so they wouldn’t fall to the ground due the earthquake and then, everything stopped; the earthquake, the cracks, the thunders. The ground and the circle on the sky were still shining and then, a huge pillar of light came down from the sky and hit the ground. Summer and Raven closed their eyes, the light was too much for them. Although they couldn’t see anything, they could still hear, and it sounded like the ground was breaking. They didn’t open their eyes until the sound and the light stopped. When Summer and Raven opened their eyes, a huge amount of rage awoke inside of them. Rage, hate, fury, the “person” who had appear in front of them made all of those feeling awaken.

It was a man of around two meters in height with short, messy white hair. His skin was pale and he had a pair of red eyes with black sclerotic and he was wearing black robes. It was Exitium, he began to look around the place in which he had appeared and quickly turned to look at Summer and Raven. The girls were sweating and breathing hard. They looked nervous but they were still smiling. “It has been a while, old friend.” Summer said, but Exitium quickly turn to look at Raven.

“Aren’t you the one who killed Salem?” He asked. Raven just laughed and nodded. “Then I must say thank you. Without you I would have not awoken.”

“Well.” Raven said. “Enjoy it while you can.”

The flames began to come out of Raven’s body and a glyph appear behind her. Red and white petals came out of the glyph and, when they passed by Raven, they began to burn. Now a huge amount of flaming petals were being hurled in Exitium’s direction, but he didn’t look worried about it. He put his right hand out in front of him and the petals collided against an invisible wall protecting Exitium. After the attacked had ceased he noticed that one petal was on his cheek, burning him. He quickly wiped the petal off of him and made the fire disappear.

“As I expected, my strength isn’t at 100%.” He said to himself. With his whole power making those petals disappear would have been easy, but he didn’t have his whole power. He needed to get out of that place and steal the maidens powers. He looked around and noticed how the girls who attacked him disappeared. _“The girl with the red hood is a silver-eyed warrior. I must end her before I get out of here or I’ll be in trouble… but first, let’s see how powerful her eyes are.”_

Meanwhile, Summer and Raven were hidden behind a rock, they had specifically done the previous attack in order to judge how much time Exitium was able to protect himself. They were more than happy to see that their enemy was able to protect himself for only about five seconds at a time. Now they only had to make a more longer version of the previous attack and Exitium would be too busy taking care of the flames to stop Summer from using her eyes’ power to purify him.

“This will be easier than I thought I would be.” Raven said.

“Yeah.” Summer responded, but her voice sounded a little sad. “But that means that we will face Silver and Mia sooner... they must be angry with us.”

“We knocked them out and made them believe that we won’t come back, they are certain angry with us.”

“True... but now that they know what we did to our parents. They should understand why we are doing this.”

Raven was going to say “Yeah” but she couldn’t. She had begun to feel an invisible pressure on her body and, to Summer surprise, Raven began to float in the air before being violently thrown into the rock in front of them. Whatever force slammed Raven into the rock repeatedly, until it broke, and the invisible force threw Raven in Exitium’s direction. Summer tried to stop her, but could not. The only thing that she could do was yell her cousin’s name and, before Raven could realize what was happening, she had Exitium’s left hand wrapped around her neck. Summer and Raven didn’t know that Exitium could do that, but now, Raven could barely think. The pressure on her neck, and the lack of air, would leave her unconscious at any moment. Despite that, she had Exitium right in front of her. This was a chance that she probably would never get again. Grabbing Exitium’s arm, she activated her semblance, but Exitium’s face was remained stoic. It was as if he didn’t care about his arm being burnt. Instead of that, he was looking at Raven with interest.

“You aren’t from this age, are you?” Raven couldn’t respond, but he was able to notice the surprise in her eyes. “Certainly interesting, but I can’t care about that now.”

He put his right hand in front of Raven and the blonde could see a small black ball. Raven began to sweat, she knew that ball, she knew what was about to happen to her. Summer knew it too but, before the silver-eyed girl could do anything, she watched the black ball get thrusted into Raven’s left eye. Exitium then released her and kicked her in Summer’s direction with a small smile on his face. If Summer couldn’t help her friend, then he wouldn’t need to move a single finger for finish her off. Summer’s whole body started shaking as she watched Raven was cover her left eye and scream. Black veins began to appear on her left arm and her teeth grew into fangs. When she removed her hands from her eye, Summer could see how Raven’s eye sclerotic was becoming black. Raven had begun to transform into a Grimm. Several flashbacks of the day when the same thing happened to her parents appeared in Summer’s mind; it was happening again and this time Raven was the one in trouble. She touched her own eyes. She didn’t know if what she was thinking was actually possible, but at least she should  had try. Summer wasn’t going to let Raven die in that horrible way. She placed her hands on Raven’s face and forced the blonde to stare into her silver eyes.

“I will save you!” Summer cried and her eyes began to shine.

Raven’s screams stopped. She had began to clenched her teeth and her left arm was shaking. The little black point in Raven’s eye sclerotic began to disappear, as did the black veins. Her fangs shrunk back into normal teeth before black smoke began to seep out of Raven’s body. Summer let go her cousin’s face and sat herself on the ground as Raven collapsed next to her, the two were breathing hard. Raven remembered the things that she had felt only a few seconds ago, the despair, the negative thoughts in her head, the pain, losing the control of half of her body, feeling that she would lose herself at any second. She was still feeling shocked, but she turned to look at Summer. Summer’s body was shaking, she was breathing hard, and she was touching her eyes with her right hand. She couldn’t believe what she had done. She had saved Raven, she had stopped her transformation, but then Summer clenched her teeth, if she only had that power six years ago.

“Hey.” Raven said, putting her right arm on one of Summer’s shoulders. “I know what you’re thinking, but right now we need to focus on this fight. You already saved me and I could not feel more grateful with you.”

Summer sighed, Raven was right. This wasn’t the moment to think about the past. They were on the battlefield but, before Summer could say anything, she began to feel a strange pressure on her chest and eventually her whole body. Raven seemed to have noticed it as well because she quickly hugged Summer’s waist. The two flew in a random direction and otherwise seemed fine, but that was until Summer noticed a pressure on her neck and found herself lacking air; Exitium was strangling her.

“You’re in my way.” He said to Raven. Exitium applied the invisible force to Raven’s head and threw her with all his force. Raven collided with several rocks before her body hit the ground. Quickly realizing that she was several meters away from Summer and Exitium, she tried to stand up, but couldn’t. Her body was still weak for almost transforming into a Grimm only a minute ago. All she could do now she was watch what was happening to her cousin. As for Summer, she couldn’t feel any more useless, she had the enemy right in front of her. Using her eyes at that moment would defeat him but, unfortunately due the lack of air, Summer was barely able to keep herself conscious.

“Your eyes turn to be more powerful than I thought.” He said. “Now, I know that you won’t survive this day, but first, let’s take care of those eyes.”

With his left hand, Exitium began to touch Summer’s right eye. She could feel how her enemy’s fingers brushed across her eyelid as she closed it. Exitium could kill Summer at any time, but until that happened, he couldn’t let her use her silver eyes. The easiest way to do that was to leave her her without any eyes at all. Summer continued to fight to free herself, but the only thing that she could do was hit Exitium’s left arm without success. She quickly began to feel pressure around right eye, she need help and fast. Then a portal appeared behind Exitium and the person who exited the portal was Raven. She was holding her Bumblebee and looked more than ready to cut Exitium’s head from his body. He noticed her approach and released Summer before disappearing in front of the girls’ eyes only to reappear a few meters away. It looked like Silver wasn’t the only person with “super-speed”, but right now, Raven was more focused on Summer. Summer’s hands were covering the right side of her face and, when she remove them, Raven relieved to see that Summer hadn’t lost her eye.

“You two had begun to upset me.” Exitium said as he snapped the fingers on his right hand.

Raven already know what that meant, Exitium had began to summon grimm. Raven began to look around waiting to see a beowolf, a nevermore, or even a goliath, and then she heard Summer shout her name. Raven saw Summer’s White Rose and hear the roar of the weapon firing in Raven’s direction. That was the moment when the blonde noticed that there was a beowolf near her.

“What happened!? Didn’t see it? Did you not notice it at all?!” Summer yelled looking at her partner but saw how Raven began to look in another direction. Something was wrong, and Summer quickly figured out what, Raven’s left eye didn’t reflect any light. “Raven… don’t tell me that…”

“I almost turned into a Grimm.” Raven said looking at her partner’s eyes. “It seems that I have lost the sight and hearing on my left side. But that was the least that it could have taken from me.”

Summer bit her lip, if Raven had only lost her sight in her left eye, then there would not be any problem because her ears would help her. But Raven had lost her hearing in that side as well, so now Raven’s had a huge blind spot. There were no time to think about it though as the girls quickly found themselves surrounded by beowolves, goliaths, and beringels, and Summer could also see some nevermores in the air. She quickly moved over to Raven’s left side while Raven activated her semblance. Summer began to shoot at the nevermores and Raven began to kick, punch, and burn the grimm who were trying to attack them. There were just too many of them and they started to become overwhelmed, but Raven noticed a glyph by her right side. She turned to look at Summer and smiled, petals were floating out of the glyph and began to burn once they passed close Raven’s body. The stream of petals then transformed into a huge pillar of fire that started to incinerate the grimm. Summer and Raven stood back to back, waiting for the burning petals to disappear. When the flames finally subsided, the only thing that they could see was powder on the ground, all the grimm were gone.

“You two are really pissing me off.” Exitium said, sounding angry. He snapped his fingers again.

Summer and Raven began to look around waiting to see more grimm. But, instead of that, the ground under them began to shake and huge mouth with a lot of sharp fangs erupted out of the ground. It was a dinosaur looking grimm and, before Summer or Raven could react, they were swallowed.

Exitium sighed. “Now it’s time for me to leave.” He said to himself, but quickly turn to look the grimm. It was howling in pain as the blade of a scythe cut through its stomach and then, in a matter of seconds, began to burn of the inside out. Summer and Raven fell to the ground, trying to catch the breath.

“Gross.” Summer said while she tried to dump the spittle out of her hood.

“Well.” Raven said while she was trying to clean her clothes. “Now we know what Roman felt when that griffon “ate” him.”

“That’s enough!” Exitium said, Summer and Raven looked up at him, he was clenching his fists and looked very angry. “I’ve had enough of playing around with you.”

The ground around Exitium began to shake, and rocks of different sizes came out and then began to burn. Exitium pointed at Summer and Raven and the molten rock flew in their direction. Most of them were small balls, but there were some that were huge. Summer knew that she would be able to break the small ones with her weapon, but the problem was the big ones. Summer and Raven prepared themselves for the worst and they tried to protect each other at much at they could, but suddenly a black wall appeared in front of them. They quickly realized that they were inside some kind of black dome.

“Someone in here smells like grimm spittle!”

Summer and Raven looked behind them and found Silver and Mia covered their noses. Raven had destroyed the black crystal that Mia used to have, so Bumblebee was the only thing which was able to open a portal. Of course, Raven Branwen’s weapon could do that too, but Summer and Raven had left the ship without any fuel in order to prevent that Mia and Silver from reaching Patch. How did they get there? There was another important question, why was Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang with Mia and Silver?

“What is everyone doing here?” Summer asked.

“We can leave that question for another time.” Ruby replied.

She had walked in front of Summer, and they were staring each other in the eyes, silver matching silver.

“Team RWBY’s leader, Ruby Rose, requests permission from Team SSMR’s leader, Summer Rose-Schnee to assist in this fight”

After hearing that, Summer and Raven glanced at each other before turning to look at their sisters.

“Eh… Long story.” Mia and Silver said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who want a family team-up? Because I want it, anyway Ruby and the other know the true and both families are together so, let’s wait to se the outgoing of this battle, as always I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a comment or a kudo and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	27. An unexpected event

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wiiiih, new chapter! Family reunion!....kind of, anyway let’s start with this.

Team RWBY and, at that moment, Team _SM_ were on a rowboat, in the middle of the sea with one destination in mind, Patch. While Mia rowed, she and Silver talked about everything. the things who had happened if Team RWBY it had separated, the things who happen before and after RWBY dead and why Summer and Raven were doing what they were doing right now and certainly most of that information had been very disturbing.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, none of them could believe that if SSMR had not interfered, if they hadn’t come to the past, then team RWBY would have been separated for two long years. Now Ruby knew why her futureself had a scar on the right side of her face, it was because she had lost that eye. While Ruby thought that she looked pretty cool with that scar, Weiss felt a little relief, she had faced her father in the future, but alone. Blake couldn’t stop thinking about what her futureself had done; rejoining the White Fang. Though, if doing that allowed her to protect her friends, she could understand why she did it. Yang was a little disappointed with her ownself, she couldn’t believe that she fought against Blake in the future and that her mother had died and she was unable to help her. However, the though that she and Blake worked together to beat Adam made her feel  happy.

“Wait!” Ruby said, remembering another piece of information that Silver and Mia had told them. “If we die fourteen years into the future, and right now I’m fifteen then… I won’t reach my thirties!”

In fact, Yang, Blake and Weiss died at the age of 31 and Ruby at the age of 29. Weiss sighed and bonked Ruby on the head.

“We have more important things to think about right now.” Weiss said when Ruby turn to look at her.

“Raven and Summer are putting their lives in danger.” Blake added. “And everything is because they’re blaming themselves for something that neither of them wanted to do.”

Blame yourself for something that happened to a loved one and run away from everyone you care about trying redeem yourself. Blake sighed, right now Summer and Raven were just like her and, in Raven’s case, everything was incredibly ironic. Blake felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Yang, and it looked like she knew how Blake was feeling.

“Don’t think about it.” Yang said and turned to look at Mia and Silver. “But between hurting my own children and death, I will choose death every time. Raven and Summer don’t need to blame themselves for do something that we would have wanted.”

“We know!” Silver replied. “But like I said, Summer and Raven don’t see it like that. From their point of view, they are the monsters who killed their own parents.”

The members of team RWBY turn to look each other, thinking about how Summer and Raven must feel every time that they saw their mothers youngerselves, noticed the sea began to shake their boat. It was a weak shake at first, but started to grow in strength. It was as  if they were hit by an earthquake and Ruby grabbed the side of the boat. Meanwhile, Yang held onto the edge of her seat with one hand and Blake with her other hand to make sure the faunus was secure. Weiss threw herself over Silver to protect her, and Mia began to use her semblance to cover the boat with her shadow shield, preventing anyone from falling out. No one know how much time had passed, all that they could feel were the waves hitting against Mia’s shield and all they could hear was the splash of the waves. Could Mia’s shield handle a possible tsunami? Fortunately, the turbulence calmed down quickly and, once Mia verified that it was safe, she dissipated her shadow and began to breath hard. Trying to ignore everything that was happening outside and focusing her mind on keeping her shadow formed had not been easy.

“Crescent Rose is… fine” Ruby said once she verified that her weapon was ok and then she turn to look at her friends. “Is everybody doing ok?”

“Yeah…” Yang said. She had released Blake who had quickly moved in Mia’s direction to verify if she was fine.

“I’m fine.” Mia said. “Tired, but fine.”

“Petal Dance is… fine.” Silver said making sure that her weapon was fine. Weiss sighed, Silver and Ruby were so alike in personality. “Mom and I are fine too.”

“Everyone is fine but, what just happened!?” Weiss asked. She had never expected to be in the middle of the sea during an earthquake.

Silver and Mia turned to look at each other, they both knew what that earthquake had meant. The two nodded and then Silver took the oars.

“Don’t ask questions and hold on something!” Mia yelled.

Patch was far and they couldn’t afford to waste time with questions. Silver closed her eyes, took a little breath, and began to focus. Normally, when she used her semblance, her legs were the only part of her body which received power, and that was what allowed her to move herself faster than sound, but recently, after reading an old comic book, she had thought about if it was possible to focus energy in other parts of her body. At this moment, her arms needed to be faster to reach Patch in no time. However, she had only tried that during her fight with Summer and the results weren’t the best, but she could worry about the side effects later and, before anyone could realize what was happening, the little row boat began to move at incredible speed. Silver had began to rowing with her semblance and her arms were moving super fast.

Thanks to Silver, RWBY and _SM_ were able to reach Patch in almost no time at all, but as Mia and Silver already knew, Silver began to have difficulty handling the secondary effect of what she had done. Silver fell to her knees once she touch the shore, her arms were shaking, she was breathing hard, and a little thread of blood was coming out of her nose.

“I’m fine, let’s continue!” She said when Ruby asked if she was doing ok.

They began to run as fast as they could. Silver didn’t use her semblance as she was still tired and, when they reached their destination, Mia and Silver began to pray. Mia was about to “destroy” her grandma’s grave, so at least she needed to show some respect. When Ruby saw the two graves she quickly turn to look at Yang and noticed how she was clenching her hands, but quickly she began to pray. Ruby followed suit, Blake joined her too. Weiss didn’t know what she should do, she was in front of the graves of the mother of two of her friends, so she put her hands together and began to pray as a sign of respect.

“Okay.” Mia said, she began to approach to her grandma’s grave and grabbed the hilt of the sword by the grave. “Sorry for this, grandma, but we need it.”

Mia picked the sword up and she quickly found a little compartment filled with black powder. Mia removed the sword from its sheath and together with Silver, they both held it. Now all they needed was to focus, focus on the place where they wanted to go, the person they wanted to defeat, and the people they wanted to save. They slashed the sword through the air and a portal appeared in front of them. Mia returned the sword to its sheath she was going to return it to its place, but Yang took it instead. She said that she wanted to be the one to return to sword and, without another word, Mia and Silver jumped into the portal, follow by Blake and Weiss. Yang looked at the sword in her hands and took a deep breath. Turning back to return it to its respective place, she found that Ruby was still praying.

“Hey, if we don’t hurry up, the portal will close. I don’t know how to open it again.”

“Sorry.” Ruby said to her sister, but quickly turn to look back at the two graves. “I was just asking mom and... I think that I can call your mom “Aunt”, to keep Summer and Raven safe, to protect them.”

“Of course they will protect them, those two are their grandkids after all.” Yang said while she stabbed the sword on the ground. She stared at the two graves with some melancholy and then she began to look at the sky. “Also, even if we can’t see them, I’m sure that they are watching and protecting us from there.”

“Yeah.” Ruby said, looking at the sky like Yang.

Yang and Ruby turn to look at each other and, without another word, they entered the portal. Moments after the two of them passed through, the portal closed.

.

.

.

The first thing Raven did was grab her sister by the t-shirt. Raven looked angry and, when she turn to look at Silver, the poor little girl felt so scared that she just hid herself behind her mom. Raven clenched her teeth, she was happy to see that her twin and cousin were fine after the fight that she and Summer had with them. After hearing Ruby say Summer’s true surname, she realized Team RWBY now knew Team SSMR true identities. She was also happy for that, but she was mad just for more one reason; Mia and Silver had brought Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang with them. The last, and first, time that RWBY faced Exitium, things didn’t end well. Raven hated the idea of the same thing happening twice, so she yelled at her sister as to why she had brought their parents and aunts with her.

 _I-I thought that they could help us,_ Mia said, Raven clenched her left fist.

 _Didn’t I tell you that you **never** think properly!? _Raven yelled and Mia close her eyes.

She knew her sister was going to hit her. After a few seconds she didn’t feel anything, so she decided to open her eyes, and what she found was Yang grabbing Raven’s arm and preventing Raven from hitting her.

“I’m pretty sure that Blake and I didn’t raise you to act like this with your own sister.”

Hearing those words made Raven stop and think, _what she was doing?_ She was going to hit her sister just because she was angry. She had never been like that. Raven released Mia and Yang released Raven’s arm. Raven turn to look at Summer, and it seemed like things weren’t easy for her either.

 _A white version of Crescent Rose!_ Ruby thought, feeling pretty excited and proud of see how her daughter was holding a scythe like her, but quickly she pushed that thought aside and returned to looking Summer right in the eyes. She needed an answer, of course the current situation wasn’t the best to ask something like, “Can I help you with this dangerous fight?” But, Ruby didn’t want to act without knowing if Summer wouldn’t agree to it and, as for Summer, she was clenching her right fist. This was one of the few times when she didn’t know what to do or say, she was happy now that she knew that Ruby and Weiss knew her true identity. Still, they were in a pretty bad situation. Even if he wasn’t at 100%, Exitium was still powerful. Raven almost turned into a Grimm and, consequently, she lost the sight and the hearing on her left side. Summer had almost lost her right eye too. Eight vs one was a huge advantage, but still, everything was too dangerous and, the last thing that Summer wanted, was to see was her parents turn into grimm twice. Of course, she knew that she could stop that, but… she really didn’t want to see that ever again. She turned to see Raven trying to find an answer, the blonde sighed and the only thing that she say was. _You are the leader, I will accept whatever you decide._

That was right, Summer was the team leader. Raven, Mia, and Silver had decided to make her the leader, and she had accepted that position. Now it was time to think as a leader, think about what will be the best decision. Summer stopped clenching her fist, she took a deep breath and then she began to look her mom in the eye. Summer had already decided what they would do, she had an answer to Ruby’s request.

“Request… accepted.”

Ruby smiled after hearing that and took out Crescent Rose, the two silver-eyed girls turned to see their respective teams.

“Okay, Team RWBY.” Ruby said.

“Team SSMR.” Summer said.

“It’s teamwork time.” Ruby and Summer said together. “And, no matter what, we will win this fight. Remember, dying on this mission is strictly prohibited. Understood?”

The two teams yelled “AYE!”

When Mia removed her shadow shield they found themselves surrounded by an uncountable number of grimm; nevermore, beowolf, ursa, goliath, beringel. They could even see some grimm who looked like dinosaurs. It was obvious that Exitium wanted to finish them as soon as possible, and Summer and Raven were able to see Exitium standing only a few kilometers away from them. He was watching so he could verify that the grimm will kill both teams. If they wanted to finish him off, they needed to take care of the grimm first.

“Double Rose and Dragon Lady!” Summer yelled and SSMR divided into two groups.

“Ice Flower and Bumblebee!” Ruby yelled and they followed their daughters. It was time for a family team-up.

Ruby and Summer began to shoot at the nevermores while Weiss and Silver slashed through the rest of the grimm. Summer was a little worried about Raven, no one else knew what had happened with the sight and hearing on her left side, and that was a great disadvantage for her. She was worried, but right now, Summer needed to focus her mind on the grimm. Ruby and Summer were in perfect synchrony, Ruby was slashing the grimm in front of her and Summer was covering her back. Ruby cut a beowolf in half and then another pair of beowolves appeared in front of her. They were near, too close for her to protect herself from them, but a pair of glyphs suddenly appeared in front of her and a pair of white beowolves leapt past her and attacked and killed the others before disappearing. She turned back and noticed that Summer had been the one to summon the beowolves. Ruby used her semblance and reached Summer just for slash a nevermore who was near the younger girl. The two looked each other in the eye and, without a single word, they knew what their next move would be. Summer summoned a line of glyphs in the grimms’ direction, and Ruby stepped on the first glyph before sprinting in the enemy direction, cutting them down without mercy. Several white grimm and animals materialized around her, protecting her for a few moments before disappearing. Of course, Summer wasted no time reaching her mother in only a few moments and they ended up back to back. Words weren’t necessary for them to know what to do, but neither had realized that they had ended up a ways away from Weiss and Silver.

Weiss had been a little busy fighting the grimm in front of her, but she was able to see the awesome teamwork Ruby and Summer were doing. It was truly awesome, and she was feeling a little jealous because all that she could do was cover Silver’s back, and vice-versa. Silver’s fighting style was just like Winter’s, tough. Weiss could see some of Ruby’s style in Silver’s moves too, but now, Weiss didn’t care, she put herself in front of Silver, blocking an Ursa’s claw. Then Silver shot it through the head before casting a quick glance in Weiss’ direction. Weiss understood perfectly what Silver wanted to do, and immediately grabbed Silver’s hand. Silver activated her semblance, it was the first time that Weiss experienced the sensation of Silver’s speed and it was a little hard to handle. At the same time, everything was strange, she felt that everything was moving in slow motion, Ruby, Summer, the grimm, everything. It seemed that she and Silver were the only ones who were able move “normally”. Of course, the two cut down the grimm who got in their way as they took up a position beside Ruby and Summer. They got there just in time for see a gigantic goliath charge at them. Ruby and Silver looked at each other and smiled, just for lunged in the goliath’s direction. The goliath roared and tried to hit Ruby and Silver with its tusks, but two huge white arms stopped its attack.

“Don’t you dare hurt them!” Both Weiss and Summer yelled.

Summer had summoned the arm of the right, and Weiss the one on the left. Ruby and Silver continued running and a glyph appeared in front of them, it was probably Summer’s, and when they stepped on it, they literally flew. Ruby held Crescent Rose tightly, Silver held Petal Dance even tighter, as the two of them cut off the goliath’s head.

“Best…” Ruby said looking at her younger daughter.

“Team-up…” Silver said looking at her mother.

“Ever!!” They shouted in unison while Weiss and Summer just sighed.

Meanwhile in the Dragon Lady/Bumblebee side.

Mia threw Raven in the direction of one of the grimm that looked like some “sort of dinosaur.” Raven’s idea was to hit it and burn it with her semblance. Yang grabbed the ribbon attached to Blakes’s sword and the faunus threw her towards Raven. The two blondes looked at each other and nodded, as Raven clenched her right fist and Yang clenched her left fist. They simultaneously hit the “dinosaur”, striking it just beside its eyes. Though, Raven misjudged the place where she wanted to hit by a few millimetres.

“Tsk.” Slipped out of Raven’s mouth. As she expected, her blind eye was affecting her perception, but she shoved those thoughts aside. Activating her semblance, the grimm’s head began to burn, and both Raven and Yang fell to the ground. Raven took out Bumblebee and Mia’s bracelets transformed into Dragon Fist. Yang glanced back at Mia as the younger sprinted forward to join them. Sharing identical smiles, they began their brutal tandem assault on all the grimm within reach. Raven just sighed before the blur of her mama’s weapon sunk into something on her left side, it was an Ursa. Blake pulled her weapon out of the Ursa she had just killed to protect Raven. Blake carefully inspected her daughter, and Raven could understand that her mom was wondering why the younger faunus hadn’t noticed the grimm near her. Blake’s honed in on Raven’s left eye, and saw that it didn’t shine like it should.

“Raven! What happened?” Blake asked. She was knew that something serious had happened to Raven. “I want the truth!”

“Things happened and I can no longer could see or hear on my left side and… You should not distract yourself on the battlefield” Raven replied when she slashed a beowolf attempting to charge her mom.

Blake had questions about what Raven just said, but right now, all that she needed to know was that her daughter was partially blind and deaf. She must protect Raven’s left side, and put all her focus into that. Although blonde had actived her semblance, Blake wanted to make sure that Raven would still be safe. She blocked an attack by another beowolf and Raven followed up, driving her sword through its head. Raven looked at her mom and the two smiled, their teamwork was excellent. They turned to check on Yang and Mia, and saw they were doing very well too. Without words, they knew what they should do, one hit after another, Yang and Mia were in perfect synchrony. Yang was protecting Mia’s back and Mia was protecting Yang’s back, then Mia used her Shadow Control and she tied up all the grimm that she had in front of her and Yang ended them with several quick strikes. After seeing that, Blake and Raven decided to make their way towards Yang and Mia, something they accomplished easily using Raven’s semblance, as the grimm who try to attack them burst into flame.

“You know.” Yang said once Blake and Raven were with them. “This is one of the best team-ups ever!”

“You said it, Dad!” Mia replied.

“Well, we **_are_** family.” Blake said.

Raven couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Of course she was happy to fight together with her parents and sister, but she couldn’t stop thinking that they were wasting time. Fighting against the grimms was waste of time and energy and, by the looks of it, Summer was thinking the same thing. Right now, they need to defeat Exitium, not the grimm, and there was only one way to end it quickly, something that only Summer and Raven could do.

“Reunification!” Summer cried out. “It’s Orange Flower time!”

Quickly, the two groups got together.

“Stay behind us!” Mia and Silver told their parents, while Summer and Raven moved to the front.

Ruby and the others were wondering what was going on, but somethings was sure, “Orange Flower” was Summer and Raven’s combination attack. Summer’s eyes began to shine and the grimm around them began to shake. Some of them had already become paralyzed, and Summer snapped the fingers on her right hand. Several glyphs appear around Raven’s body, all of them emitting petals. The petals caught fire as they passed close to Raven’s body and, the next thing everyone knew, a maelstrom of flames surged outwards, incinerating all the grimm.

“Sorry, mama and dad.” Mia said. “But if we are talking about team-ups, there’s no one better than Summer and Raven.”

“The invincible Orange Flower.” Silver added.

RWBY were shocked, but what Mia and Silver had said proved to be true. Summer and Raven were the best team-up. Mia and Silver turn to each other and nodded, it was very likely that their sisters were going to be angry with what they wanted to do, but they didn’t care about it. Taking a deep breath, Mia took Silver’s hand.

Meanwhile, Exitium was watching the wall of fire in front of him and sighed, he should had expected that. Then he began to think, think about the people who came to help Summer and Raven, thinking about the girl with the red scythe. She was also a silver eyed warrior and she had have a lot of chances to use that power, but she didn’t.

 _So the only one who can use her powers is the girl with the white scythe._ He thought and turned to look at his left arm.

There were still burns running along that arm and all that Exitium could think about was that the most dangerous people for him were Summer and Raven. He needed to take care of them before leaving this place, but a black-haired girl suddenly appear in front of him and tried to punch him. Exitium dodged Mia’s strike and sensed Silver behind him, trying to stab him, but he managed to dodge her attack as well.

Mia and Silver had decided to join fight against Exitium and were reach him before their sisters thanks to Silver.

Mia was the one who was closer to him so he decide to start with her. Exitium put one of his finger on Mia’s forehead and, she didn’t know what exactly happened, but she felt an invisible force hit her body and she was thrown to the ground. The impact disoriented her, but she didn’t waste time. Her right eye change from purple to yellow and her shadow turned into several black ribbons which wrapped around Exitium, immobilizing him. Silver had her sabre ready to slash at his head but, to her and Mia’s surprise, Exitium disappeared. Mia couldn’t believe it, her Shadow Control had always proven to be indestructible, but now someone had been able to set himself free of the ribbons.

“Silver!” Mia called out when she saw Exitium behind her cousin.

He hit Silver in her back and blood come out of Silver’s mouth, the blow had been too strong. Mia tied Silver with her shadow, catching Silver before she hit the ground, then Mia threw herself in Exitium’s direction. She wanted to punch him in his stupid face, but she instead hit some kind of invisible wall. Again she was hit back by a blast of invisible energy, landing on top of Silver and the two fell to the ground.

“You know.” He said, looking at the girls. “I can’t use this to often, but… well, it just might be worth it right now.”

A little black sphere appeared in his hand and he was pointing at the girls. There was not enough time to dodged as the ball flew at them. Mia moved completely in front of silver, presenting herself as the only target and, without any warning, someone pulled Silver’s hood and Mia’s scarf. The girls watched as the black sphere hit the ground and created a giant hole. Silver and Mia turned to see who had saved them, but they began to feel a little scared when they saw the angry look on Summer and Raven’s faces.

“S-sis…” Silver whispered.

“We’ll talk about this later.” Summer said. “Right now, we need to leave.”

Without another word, Summer and Raven threw their sisters into the portal that they had used to arrive and save them. But, before Summer or Raven could jump through the portal themselves, it was cut in half and disappeared. While Raven hesitated in surprise, Summer saw an opportunity and her eyes began to shine. She turned to look at her opponent, but instead of becoming paralyzed, Exitium kicked Summer and the lack of concentration made her eyes stop of shining. It was as expected, just looking at Exitium was not enough. She needed to make eye contact for her silver eye powers work on him. Exitium hands turn into claws and he lunged forward towards Summer, but Raven blocked his attack with Bumblebee. She blocked strike after strike, all that Raven could do was continue protecting Summer from Exitium’s onslaught. She and Summer knew that now wasn’t time to fight, Raven needed to open a portal a soon as possible.

One of Exitium’s sleeves turn into a snake and Raven let it bite her right arm. She activated her semblance again and the snake began to burn, making Exitium move back. Raven took this opportunity and opened a portal, which Summer and Raven jumped into it. Exitium saw how the portal disappeared while he was taking care of the flames on his body.

A creepy smile appear on his face. As he already had thought, Summer and Raven were very dangerous for him and he already knew how to take care of them.

“You two will wish you never met me.” He said to himself.

.

.

.

 _What were you thinking!?_ Was the first thing that Mia and Silver heard from their parents. Summer was looking at Silver feeling very disappointed, but Raven just sighed. Mia was her twin so she, more or less, could understand why Mia had done that. Plus it wasn’t time to scold them. They needed a plan and quick, but the ground began to shake and big cracks appeared.

“W-whats’s going on?” Ruby asked, but no one had the answer.

The ground began to rise, each member of teams RWBY and SSMR were standing on different rocks which were flying around the place. Mia looked around, activated her semblance, and quickly used her shadows to anchor all the rocks in range, stopping them from moving. The rocks were still floating, but they no longer were moving.

“Is everyone fine!?” Mia called out. Silver was close to her so Mia saw her nod.

“I’m fine!” Yang yelled back. She was only a few metres away from Mia. “Blake, How are you!?”

“Fine!” Blake cry.

“Wait!” Weiss said looking around her and quickly turned to Mia. “Where’s Ruby!?”

“She was out of my range!” She answered.

“Like my sis and Raven?” Silver asked, she hadn’t see her sister or Raven and Mia just nodded.

Yang began to try to find her sister. She finally spotted Ruby in the distance, she was more than a kilometer away from them, Summer was near to her and Raven was standing on a rock above her aunt and cousin. If the three of them came a little closer they would enter Mia’s range and that was Yang yelled to the three.

“Understood!” Ruby said, preparing herself to jump but…

“Ruby, behind you!!!”

“Jump, NOW!”

“What are you waiting for!”

“MUM!”

“AUNT!”

Ruby didn’t get why everyone was yelling at her, until she turned around and felt her body freeze. Exitium was behind her, his left hand had turned into a big, sharp claw. He was more than ready to slash Ruby, and she… she could not move even if she wanted to, her body didn’t respond. Her legs didn’t wanted to move, neither did her arms, she couldn’t even draw her weapon to protect herself. Summer was shocked, but she quickly bit her lip, she didn’t think twice and began to run in her mom’s direction.

“Like I’m going to let you hurt her in front of me twice!!!” Summer cry while she tackled her mom to keep her safe.

Summer saw how Exitium was smiling and that was the moment she understood, Ruby wasn’t the objective. Summer was the true objective, but before she could protect herself, Summer began to feel a pain on her face and the color red was the only thing that she can see from her right eye. After that, a huge pain blossomed in her chest.

“Summer!!!” Raven yelled. She jumped from where she was and began to run to her cousin.

 Exitium saw her and a black sphere appear in his right hand and he threw it at Raven. She wasn’t going to let him turn her into a Grimm twice, so Raven let the black ball hit her right arm it quickly exploded, but the blonde didn’t care. She grabbed Summer by the waist to prevent her from falling to the ground, and then Raven began to feel a huge pain in her stomach. After that, Exitium kicked the two girls in Ruby direction and all that she could do was grab them.

“Love makes people do stupid things.” Exitium said to himself as he watched some of rock had begin to fall. “So, it’s time.”

Everything started to fall and Mia tried her hardest to not fall from where she was. If she fell, or left the rock she was on, then her shadows would disappear. So she literally stuck her hands on the rock to keep her balance. Mia turned to look in front of her and saw Ruby falling with Summer and Raven in her arms. She was in Mia’s range now and the black-haired girl didn’t waste any time and quickly caught them. Now, all that they needed to do was wait for the impact of hitting the ground, but the impact never came. A huge amount of petals had been summoned to save them. Once they were safe, the petals quickly disappeared leaving Weiss breathing hard as she had used a lot of her energy performing that stunt. Mia released everyone and, together with Silver, she ran to her sister side. Mia took Raven and Silver took Summer while Ruby was sitting on the floor looking her hands.

“Ruby!” Yang said when she saw her sister true state. There was blood all over her body, on her dress, on her hands, and some drops of blood in her face. Ruby was shaking, very hard. “Y-you’re bleeding…”

“It’s not mine.” Ruby said, she was still looking her hands. “This blood... isn’t mine.”

“Summer!!!”

“Raven!!!”

Hearing Silver and Mia cry their sisters’ names felt horrible, and the reason was more horrible than that. Summer had a big cut on the right side of her face, It went from her forehead to her cheeks, passing close to her eyes and there was another cut on her chest that went from her right elbow to the left side of her waist. Summer’s white dress had turned red and Raven had lost her right arm, again. There was a cut on her waist from the right to the left side, it was looked like Exitium had tried to cut Raven in half and, worse of all, neither of them had opened the eyes.

“Raven... Raven!!!” Mia was yelling and shaking her sister’s body. “If this is some kind of joke? Let me tell you that this isn’t funny! What are you waiting for!? Open your eyes!”

“Summer… please say something.” Silver said, she was crying with Summer in her arms.

It was like a case of horrible deja vu. Raven without an arm, Summer’s chest totally red, Mia and Silver felt that the Grimm incidents of six years ago was repeating. The only difference right now was that Summer’s face was also bleeding and Raven’s stomach too. No one could say a single word, everything was just silence until Summer began to cough.

“Summer!” Silver cried grabbing her sister right hand. “Can you hear me!?”

“Sil…ver?” Summer whispered, her voice sounded weak. “In which moment did everything change to red?... Mom! Silver, mom is…”

“She’s fine.” Silver said while the tears were still coming out of her eyes. “She’s fine, she didn’t get hurt thanks to you. Summer, you saved her.”

“I see.” Summer said, a little smile appeared on her face, and some tears came out of her left eye. “Thanks Oum, really, I’m so glad.”

“Raven!” Mia yelled, she had hear her sister cough and complain about the wound on her stomach. “Are you ok!? Answer me!”

“Sorry.” Raven whispered. “I destroyed the arm that you re-built for me, again.”

“That doesn’t matter, I can build a new one, so, don’t worry.” Mia said trying to sound relieved, but the truth was that she was crying.

“Well, if you say so, then I leave everything in your hands.” Raven said with a smile on her face.

The little relief that Silver and Mia were feeling at that moment quickly turned into despair when Summer and Raven closed their eyes again. They were still breathing so, they just had lost conscience due the blood lost, but still, Silver and Mia changed from feeling sad to feeling useless. Why always Summer and Raven? Why them? They always get hurt, always. Silver’s face was covered by tears, she had never been able to help her sister with something and, because of that, Summer always ended up getting hurt. Silver was fast, faster than everyone. Why, with that speed, was she unable to help her sister!? Why!? Meanwhile, Mia was biting her lip. Physically, she was the stronger twin, but right now she felt so weak and useless. She was unable to prevent her sister from getting hurt again. If her Shadow Control didn’t have a range limit, then she could have done something. That was not possible, and the consequences for that was that her sister and cousin had been severely injury.

Yang balled her right hand into a fist and then she punched the ground, cracking the earth. Yang’s eyes had change to red and some tears were falling. First, she had not been able to save her mother and now, she had not been able to help her niece and her own daughter. She should have kept an eye on Raven, when the ground began to shake she should  have kept her family safe, she should have made sure that everyone was in Mia’s range, but she didn’t. She punched the ground again, but this time with her left fist. She was frustrated, so frustrated. Why was she unable to protect the people that she loved!? Since when was she so weak!?

Weiss put her hands on Silver’s shoulder. Seeing her younger daughter cry and her oldest daughter gravely injured made Weiss feel horrible. The shock of knowing that those two girls were her daughters was still strong, but still, Weiss felt that she could do more for Summer. If she had practiced using her semblance more, then she could have summoned something to save Ruby, Summer, and Raven or at least get them into Mia’s range, but she couldn’t do that. Now she had to hold back her tears and give Silver support and comfort. Regardless, she could not feel more useless.

Blake was also biting her lip and clenching her fists with some tears in the corner of her eyes. First, Yang had lost her arm and she had not been able to prevent that, now her daughter had gotten hurt, and again, she had not been able to prevent it. She should have kept an eye on Raven. Of course, she had been doing that since the moment which Raven confessed that she was blind in one eye, but Blake felt that she should better than that. She should have protected Raven, she should have made her, Ruby, and Summer stay in Mia’s range. Blake knew that she could do more for her family, but she was not able to do it. Blake turned to look at Raven and Summer’s wounds, she had read a few books about medicine and what Raven and Summer needed right now was someone to stop the bleeding. So Blake had Yang give her the bandages on her right arm and she untied Mia’s sweatshirt, stopping the bleeding was the only thing that she could do right now.

Ruby was still staring her hands, hands filled with blood. It was hard for her to know if it was Summer or Raven’s blood on her hand, on her dress, on her face. The moment when Summer got hurt protecting her was still fresh in Ruby’s mind. Ruby began to hug herself, she had been so close, she could had helped her daughter and niece, but she didn’t. At that moment she had been so scared that her body froze. Her sadness changed into rage, Ruby had began to clench her teeth, if it had not been for Exitium… if he did not exist, then nothing would have happened. The smile on Exitium’s face when he hurt Summer and Raven made Ruby’s blood boil, she couldn’t forgive him. He had dared to hurt her family and that was something unforgivable, very unforgivable.

“This should be enough.” Blake said. “But we need to get out of here a soon as possible. They still need a doctor.”

She had used Yang’s bandages to stop Raven’s bleeding and Mia’s sweatshirt had been ripped up and used to stop Summer’s bleeding. She leaned the two of them against a rock, but they still needed a doctor. They had lost a lot blood and it was more than likely that they will require a blood transfusion.

“Don’t worry.” Yang said, putting her right hand on Mia’s shoulder. “Raven had shown us that she is a strong girl, Summer too. There’s no way that some wounds like those will kill them. So, let’s defeat our enemy and take them to a doctor.”

“Dad.” Mia said looking at her mom and then, she felt another hand in her other shoulder, it was Blake. “Mama…”

Mia had began to cry again. She could feel her parents’ support, a support that she had not felt in years. Meanwhile, Silver was hugging Weiss while more tears were coming out of her eyes. Weiss was hugging Silver with her left arm and petting the girl’s hair with her other hand.

“Don’t worry, Silver.” Weiss said. “Summer will be fine, I can promise you that.”

“Mom…”

“That’s right.” Ruby’s voice began to sound strong again. “Summer and Raven will be fine, but first we need to defeat the thing who hurt then. He dared to hurt **_my_** family and, no matter what, I won’t forgive him.”

Everyone turned to see Ruby and, no one had a response, not a single word. Silver had stopped her mom’s embrace, cleaned the tears from her eyes, and gave her mum a serious look. Mia also wiped her tears, there was still hope, there was still time, they could still save Summer and Raven. Yang, Blake, and Weiss turned to each other and then they turned to look at their leader. Everyone were smiling, whatever plan she came up with, they will accept it. No one dared to hurt their family without facing the consequences. Ruby was looking at everyone, she was looking at them with her eyes, her silver eyes.

A pair of silver eyes that were shining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two people deadly hurt, a new power awoke, the climax of the battle is near, the despair is pretty evident….yes, this was a great chapter, oh boy the end of this story is more and more near, I honestly don’t know how to feel about it, anyway as always, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a comment or a kudo and see you next time.
> 
> Atte, Geo.


	28. One for all, all for one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I leave a big cliffhanger in the last chapter, let's start with this.

There is only two ways of awaken the silver-eyes’ power; training or a radical change in the user’s emotional state.

In the bad timeline, Ruby had awakened her eyes’ power due to the trauma of watching Cinder “kill” Pyrrha. When her parents died, Summer almost awakened that power, but the trauma was too much to handle at that time. A while after that incident, Summer silver-eyes power awoke in order to protect her family. Now, Ruby had awakened that power thanks to one of the strongest and oldest feelings in history.

Rage.

“Let’s do this!” Ruby said. She was sweating and she had one of her hands on her head. Ruby was definitely having a headache, but she didn’t let that stop her. “I don’t know for how long I’m going to be able to keep this up, so let’s hurry!”

“Y-yeah!” Mia said, she put her right hand up next to her mouth and began to bit her nails, she was trying to think about what they should do. “A plan… we need a plan… but… what kind of plan? What we should do?”

“Mia?” Silver said when she noticed that Mia was acting strange.

Mia began to bite her nails with more vigor as she turned to see her sister and cousin. Her breathing grew erratic, she didn’t know what to do! She wasn’t able to think of anything useful and then she turn to look at Silver.

“Let’s get out of here!”

“WHAT!?” Everyone yelled in response.

“A-after Raven, I’m the eldest one of the team, b-but I can’t… I just can’t think of anything” Mia took Silver by the shoulder, there was fear and despair in the black-haired girl’s face. “You and me aren’t smart like Summer and Raven are, if we make a wrong move then we will die. Let’s get out of here and form a plan together with Ozpin. My shadow ribbons can’t stop him and he seems to be faster than you. We can’t do this, WE JUST CAN’T!”

The despair of what happened mere seconds ago had finally hit Mia. There were tears in the corner of her eyes and she just wanted to run away from everything. Mia was so scared and desperate, it was hard for Yang and Blake see their daughter in that mode. Running away from a difficult situation and blaming yourself for it. Blake sighed, it appeared as though her daughter had inherited those things from her, and she was not proud of it. Yang had began to crack her knuckles, she thought that maybe with a quick smack, Mia will regain her cool, but then everyone was surprised when Silver slapped Mia.

“This isn’t about who is older or smarter!” Silver cried out. “This is about do the right thing! If we run away now, then Exitium will escape from here, he will steal the Summer and Fall Maidens’ powers. After that, he will kill the Spring and Winter maidens too and the future that we are trying to change will happen again! Mia, this isn’t time to lose your cool, this the time protect the present and change our future. That was our sisters wanted, so we can’t let despair win”

“B-but… h-he defeated our sisters… if they were not able to fight against him then… what makes you think that we can do anything!?”

Silver slapped Mia again. If it was necessary to hit her a thousand times, Silver would do it.

“He used dirty tricks to hurt them! If we run away, if we give up, then we won’t be able to change anything and Summer and Raven will have gotten hurt in for nothing. We can’t think about what’s best for us, we need to think about what our sisters had wanted to do.”

Mia turned to look at her injured sister and cousin again. If they weren’t unconscious, then neither would have cared about their wounds and would want to keep fighting. Mia bit her lip, Silver was right. If they ran away now, then everything they had been fighting for will have been in vain.

“Sorry. I… I don’t know what came over me.” Mia said “You’re right, if we run away then… Summer and Raven will get angry with us.”

“You said it.” Silver said, she knew that Mia had said that last phrase in the joking way and Mia began to smile. “What’s up?”

“I have an idea. I’m going to do what Raven always told I do, I won’t think properly.”

Sometimes the crazier ideas turn out to be the best ones.

.

.

.

Exitium cracked his knuckles, neck, arms, almost all the joints in his body. All the power that he had used moments ago had left his body tense. He saw a small rock lying on the ground tried to make it float, but the rock just shook a little and nothing else happened. Exitium looked at his hand and “Hmph” come out of his mouth. As he had expected, he won’t be able to use that power for a while, but it was not like he cared about it. He had already taken care of the two people who represented the largest danger to him, but something still seemed wrong. He could feel six… no, eight sparks of life, though the last two were very weak.

“Are they still alive!?” He said to himself. Summer could no longer use her silver-eyes power, but Raven could still hurt him with her semblance. “What do I need to do to kill those two?”

He had began to feel very upset. He had just used a lot of his power to “kill” Summer and Raven only to realize that he had only left them wounded. He had wasted his power, _and there’s more people who don’t know when to give up._ Exitium could feel it, there were six people moving towards him, who wanted to defeat him. They were approaching him with a surprising amount of speed. He sighed, his power may be diminished, but there were some things that he could still do. Thunder emitted from the finger of his right hand, and the ground began to shake. A huge wall of rock appeared near of where he feel the sparks of life and a small idea come to his mind. The weak sparks were not moving, they should be unconscious. He just needed to send some Grimm there to finish off Summer and Raven.

Mia had yelled “STOP!” when she saw the rock wall come out of the ground and Silver quickly did what her cousin said. Silver had Ruby in her back and, with her right hand, Silver was holding Mia’s hand and Mia was holding Yang’s left hand. With her left hand, Silver was holding Weiss’ hand and Weiss was holding Blake’s. Mia had been the one who came with that idea, using Silver to reach Exitium. Able to move at the speed of the sound, it should be easy and when Silver held onto someone when she used her semblance, that person could also move at that speed. Theoretically, that should work with more than one person. Summer or Raven would have told her that it was a crazy idea, but now the problem was that wall. Going around it would be a waste of time and suddenly Mia felt Yang release her hand.

“Silver, listen.” Yang said while she was as she activate her gauntlets. “I’m going to break this thing and, when it comes down, you just run. Don’t wait for me and run.”

“Wait!” Ruby said. “Yang, are you sure? I mean, if you came with us you will be a big help.”

“What if he tries to finish what he started with Raven and Summer while we’re trying to reach him? Remember, he can summon Grimm. You need focus yourself on keeping your eyes shining.”

No one said anything because Yang was right. Mia began to feel a little guilty for not having thought of it herself, but the black-haired girl heard her mom say her name. When she looked, she saw Yang was smiling at her.

“Give him atleast one good punch for me.”

Mia smiled and nodded, while Yang turned to face the wall. She had been able to destroy a huge robot with her fists, so this shouldn’t be so difficult. She took a deep breath and clenched her right fist, she was strong but that won’t been enough to break the wall, Yang need to focus herself to get more power. Raven and Summer had gotten badly hurt, and the thing that hurt them even had the gall to smile about it. Her daughter had been hurt and wasn’t able to prevent it. Flames began to flicker from the tips her hair, her purple eyes changed to red. While her semblance could be “Get hurt, get stronger,” sometimes simply getting angry helped her. She drew her right fist back; there was the chance this would damage her new arm, but Mia could fix that later. With only a small grunt, Yang hit the wall. It was just a single strike, but several cracks appeared and parts of the wall began to break off and fall. Mia was shocked, she already know that her dad was really strong, but what she just witnessed was amazing. Silver was also shocked, but when she heard her blonde aunt yell “Run, now!!!” she noticed an opening form; one big enough to allow three people pass through. She began to run, just as Yang had requested, leaving the brawler behind.

“Nice, still works.” Yang said once she verified that her right hand was still functioning properly. “Time to focus on protecting Raven and Summer.”

“You seriously thought you were going to fight alone?”

Yang almost freaked out when she heard the other voice as she believed that she was alone. She had not noticed that Blake was at her side. The faunus explained that she released Weiss’s hand before Silver began to run again. Though Blake have plenty of confidence in Yang’s skill, she really didn’t want to leave her alone. Blake didn’t say that last part to Yang, so the blonde was asked her partner why she had decided to stay.

“Yang, listen. I don’t want the leave you to protect Raven and Summer alone. They’re also my family and, you know what everyone says, two are better than one and…”

Yang heard a shot come out of Blake’s weapon and when the blonde turned back, she saw Blake had killed an Ursa that was attempting to pounce on Yang. Yang turned to look at her girlfriend, but the faunus only smiled and said, “ _You should not distract yourself on the battlefield.”_

Yang laughed nervously. She was embarassed and somewhat ashamed about what just happened. Recovering, they looked at each other for another moment before running to the place where they had left Summer and Raven. If a Grimm tried to touch just a single hair of those girls then, Yang and Blake cut them down without mercy.

Meanwhile, Silver was still running. Ruby and Mia insisted on going back for Blake, but Weiss told them that if Blake decided to stay with Yang then they wouldn’t be able change her mind.

 _“Well, as dad said, someone needs to protect Raven and Summer.”_ Mia said when she noticed a group of Grimm running towards the place they had left their sisters. Luckily, there were alot less Grimm compared to the amount that had attacked them only minutes ago. Maybe Exitium was running out of power? That was good for them, but there was a small problem, Exitium had disppeared. It was like the moment he managed set himself free of Mia’s semblance he just disappear. How, though? No one could be more faster than Silver… right?

“In a war between sound and light, which do you believe is faster?”

Silver slid to a stop when she heard that voice behind her, but when she turned around, there was no one there. Ruby, Weiss and Mia also looked around, but they didn’t see anything either. Silver knew there had to be someone there, so she looked around very carefully for a signal, a small movement, something strange. Suddenly a pair of red-eyes appeared in front of her, white hair like the snow, and a pale face.

“Boo!”

Silver yipped and began to run away. Reflexively, she grabbed Weiss and Mia’s hands with firm grip and ran in the opposite direction. Ruby clung tighter to Silver’s back but Ruby, Weiss and Mia felt Silver stop herself quickly. Exitium was in front of them, and again, Silver didn’t waste time and began to run in a different direction. Again, their enemy appeared in front of them; again and again and again. No matter which direction Silver ran, Exitium just appeared in front of her, making Silver stop and run in another direction. It was like they were surrounded. Silver saw a rock to the side and quickly ran in that direction and hid all of them behind the rock, Silver needed to catch her breath.

“How he could be faster than you!?” Ruby asked Silver, but didn’t get an answer, Silver was still catching her breath.

“He said: Between sound and light, which do you believe to be faster?” Weiss said. “That can only mean that, if Silver has the speed of sound, then he has the speed of light.”

“Sound vs light...” Mia said, that definitely sounded impossible.

“No.” Silver said, she was still trying the catch her breath but there was determination in her eyes. “He doesn’t have all his power, so he should still have limits. There are less Grimm than before and he hasn’t used the abilities that he used when Mia and I tried to fight him. I’m sure that his body has a limit to the amount of times he can use that speed, and I’ll make him reach that limit!”

“Silver, wait!” Mia cried out, still holding her cousin’s hand. “If you’re planning to use your semblance more than five times in a row…”

“This isn’t the moment to worry about it!”

Before someone could say something, the rock broke. No one was shocked when they saw Exitium. It was the opposite, he was the one who looked shocked, he had seen Ruby’s eyes shining.

“You have awaken that power!?” He yelled, trying to grab Ruby, but Silver had began to run again.

Even if Exitium appeared in front of Silver, the reddish-white haired girl just need to run in another direction. If she needed to do that until Exitium reach his limit then she would. While Silver was still running, both Ruby and Weiss, asked Mia about what she was trying to say when she warned Silver about her semblance limit. Silver was too focused on running and didn’t hear when Mia confessed the truth. Silver’s semblance didn’t have a limit on uses; fifty seconds or five time in a row, those were guidelines. Silver’s body imposed the limit. When she used her semblance, Silver focused the energy into her legs in order to move at the speed of sound and there were consequences of that. The muscles in her legs went through a lot extra strain and, if Silver used her semblance too much, the muscles and joints in Silver’s legs began to get tired and worn-out. Silver had done that only once in the past. She had used her semblance for a whole minute and half without stopping and the consequences was that she was not able to move her legs at all for the rest of the day.

Ruby and Weiss looked at each other, if using her semblance for a minute and half left her unable to move her legs for several hours, then what would happen if she used her semblance for longer? Mia was worried for Silver too, but Mia could understand that this was not the best time to try to convince Silver to stop, but at least they could try to help her.

“Left!” Mia yelled and Silver quickly turned in that direction.

“Right!” Weiss yelled and, again, Silver turned.

“Behind you!” Ruby yelled and Silver pushed forward.

Silver didn’t need to wait to see Exitium with her own eyes, her family can do that and tell her where to run. She was going to make Exitium reach his limit. Even if no one would say it, everyone knew that Exitium’s target was now Ruby and Silver wasn’t going to let him hurt her mom again.

Suddenly Silver stopped. She was breathing and sweating, and felt a surge of pain in her legs. She bit her lip and after hearing Mia say her name, Silver cried. “I can continue!”

As she started to run, and activate her semblance, Silver could feel the joints of her legs were hurting, every single one. The rest of her legs felt as though they were on fire. She still didn’t want to stop herself, and they continued as before. Whenever Exitium was appeared in front of them, Silver ran in the direction that the others yelled to her. Then Mia noticed Exitium had not shown himself for a while and she turned back and saw him holding his right knee. Even with the distance between them, Mia was able to notice how his legs were shaking. Silver had fulfilled her objective and that gave Mia an idea.

“Silver, go back! It looks like he reached his limit, go back and I’ll take care of him.”

“Wait!” Ruby said “I’m the one who should go! I have the silver eyes!”

“I know it aunt, but I promised dad. I need to break his teeth in. You can finish him after that.”

As Silver passed near Exitium, Mia jumped off, leading with her fist she collided with Exitium. As Silver turned saw Mia continuing to punch Exitium’s face, now she just needed to get Ruby back to him and everything would be over. Weiss was feeling a little useless but she had to admit, Mia’s plan seemed to be pretty successful. As long as they could make him pay for what he did to Summer and Raven, then Weiss didn’t care about how useful she was. As Silver ran back towards Exitium she knew that what Raven told her was wrong, Mia always thought properly, at least that was Silver’s opinion.

Exitium was holding his knees, his legs where shaking and he was breathing harf.

_“Stupid limits.” He thought._

He couldn’t wait to recover all his power. When he turned to see where his the silver-eyed girl had gone, he didn’t see her but what he did see was a black-haired girl flying in his direction. He raise his right hand and Mia crashed against some kind of invisible wall. To Exitium’s surprise, he saw Mia smiling. The girl’s right eye changed to yellow and Mia’s shadow turn into ribbons. The ribbons began to tie Mia to the invisible barrier, and there was only one thought in Mia’s head. Her bracelets turned into gauntlets and she began to strike the dome, one punch after another. Exitium looked upset, why did everyone insist on getting in his way?

He could try to throw Mia away, but he couldn’t use that power at that moment and with Mia’s semblance tying her to the dome, he wouldn’t be able to do that easily anyways. He decided to draw on his second option, transforming Mia into a Grimm. He tried to make a black ball in his right hand, but what he got was a very small sphere that quickly vanished.

 “Tsk...” Came out of his mouth, looks like he reach the limit with that too.

“You have the devil’s own luck, girl.” He said to Mia, but she could not hear him. “But not for much longer.”

He put one of his fingers on the top part of the dome and Mia felt her body begin to be electrocuted. Exitium had made a considerable amount of electricity pass through the dome. Mia’s body was shaking, she could feel the electricity flowing through her body, but Mia just clenched her teeth and fists and began to hit the dome again, but this time with more force.

“That won’t stop me!!” Mia cried.

Exitium clenched his teeth and began to put more power into the electricity, but Mia was still punching and cracks began to appear in the dome. Mia was felt pain wrack her body but, like Silver, she didn’t care about that. She was going to continue no matter what. Blood was coming out of her knuckles, she could feel the electricity in every single muscle of her body, but just looking at the face of the **_thing_** who hurt her family in front of her made all the pain she was feeling mean nothing. Mia put most of her strength into her left fist and she gave another hit. That was the hit that was able to break a little part of the dome. Mia didn’t waste time feeling joy for that and she began to strike it quicker, she needed a hole the size of a person.

Exitium clenched his teeth and quickly turned part of his sleeve into snake which attacked Mia, but the girl grabbed it with her hands. She just ripped it in half then, with her right fist, and all her remaining strength, she hit the dome one more time.

“This is for my sister and cousin!!!”

Meanwhile, Yang and Blake had been able to take care of all the Grimm who tried to hurt Summer and Raven. When they realized that no more Grimm were coming, they looked at each other and, without any words, they decide to check on what was happening with Mia and the others. They were a far away, but they could see Mia hitting some kind of dome that had lightning coming out of it.

“What the hell is happening?” Yang asked, and Blake put one of her hands on her girlfriend shoulder trying to calm her.

They hear Mia’s voice crying, “This is for my sister and cousin!!!” and then they saw Mia hit the dome with all her strength. Even if though they were so far away, they could see black liquid coming out of Exitium’s nose and mouth. It was probably his blood. There was also a few teeth floating in the air. Mia had done what Yang told to her to do.

“That’s my kid!” Yang called. She was feeling so proud of Mia, her powerful little brawler, though, Mia was just one year younger than her right now.

“Ours.” Blake whispered, but Yang was able to hear her and quickly turn to look at her, The faunus’ cheeks turned pink, but she repeated what she had said. “She’s ours, Yang. You should say, that’s **our** kid.”

Yang thought for a moment about what her partner had said. The blonde’s cheek also turned pink when the word “our” came out of Blake’s mouth. A little smile appeared on Yang’s face, “That’s our kid” definitely sounded much better.

Meanwhile, after Silver stopped and fell to her knees. Her legs was hurting so much. Silver could barely move them and, in that state, running wasn’t going to be an option for her for a while, but Ruby and Weiss didn’t waste any time. Weiss quickly summoned a line of glyphs on the floor and, with Weiss’ glyphs and Ruby’s semblance, they could equal Silver’s speed. Weiss had decided to stay with Silver because the girl would need help to walk and, when Ruby saw Mia hitting Exitium, she smiled and stepped on the first glyph. She was on the way but, for her bad luck, a Golem appeared in front of her. Ruby really didn’t have time to deal with a Grimm, but she needed to pass. Before she could draw Crescent Rose she saw a glyph in the sky and a huge robot who looked like a knight cut off the Grimm’s head. They both disappeared in a combination of white and black smoke. Ruby smiled thinking that Weiss was improving her summoning abilities quite well.

Finally, Ruby had Mia and Exitium in front of her. Ruby stepped on the last glyph when she saw Mia’s shadows disappear and the girl fell to the floor. Ruby jumped forward and heard Mia say, “I leave everything in your hands, Aunt Ruby”

Exitium was still recovering as he had received a very strong blow. The first thing that he saw was Ruby, he clenched his teeth but there was no time to dodge her. He felt the girl hands on his cheeks and neither of them knew what happened after that. Strangely, Ruby felt the shine of her own eyes dazzling her, so she could barely keep her eyes open and Exitium…

All that he could see was the color white.

.

.

.

He looked around, all that he could see was the color white. He didn’t know where he was or what was happening. He looked down at his hands, his scrawny and wrinkled hands. See that made him feel shocked and quickly he put his hands on his face. There were wrinkles on his face and a very long and white beard.

“What… happened to me?” He whispered, his voice sounded old. He looked old, he felt old, he WAS old and, right now, he could only think of who was guilty of this. “That red hooded girl.”

She must be behind all of this. He had ended up here after that girl attacked him but, with his current body, he was more than sure that wouldn’t be able to escape from this place. So he decided to try and walk to find an exit. When he moved his right leg… he finally felt how old his body was. His legs were weak and his steps were very slow but, even with that, he continued walking. He just walked, though it was difficult to know if he was actually moving to somewhere until he was able to see something. After a little while longer he saw _someone._ He was could just see the person’s back, but it was to obvious that it was a girl. A girl with pink hair who was staring at the sky. He asked what she was doing there, but he didn’t get an answer. He asked in what kind of place they were in, and he didn’t get an answer to that either.

Finally he asked. “Who are you?”

“Why do you ask that?” The girl finally responded. “You forgot me so easily?”

The girl turned to look at him and he didn’t know how to react. He knew that girl and it had been YEARS since the last time that he had seen her. The girl in front of his eyes was the first Summer Maiden. The hermit felt so happy to see his old friend again, but when he tried to reach her to give her a hug, the only thing that he saw was a gesture of disgust. Summer back away to keep herself some centimeters apart from him.

Why was she reacting like that? Was it about what had happened years ago? Right now he didn’t look like Exitium, he had recovered his old appearance and he should be the one in feeling upset with her, not the other way around.

“Why are you reacting like that!?” He asked. “Look at me, I recovered my old appearance. It has been years since the last time that we saw each other.”

“You can say whatever you want, but what I see is just the memories of what you used to be. You used to be a very kind and lovely old man. You respected all living things. Your heart was full of kindness. I like to remember you in that way… and not as the thing in which you became.”

Hearing that make the hermit clench his teeth. Summer was saying that everything was his fault? How dare she say that! He was only trying to bring peace to the world. He wanted to bring peace to the world. He didn’t want a world with war, with bad things, with evil, he wanted a peaceful world. What was wrong with his dream? What was bad with that!? He could not control himself any longer and he began to yell at the girl, but she kept a stoic face.

“You and your sisters betrayed me!” The hermit cried. “I gave you those powers to make the world a better place, but when I ask you to help me with that objective, you four betrayed me! You sealed me and my plans were delayed for decades. I’m the one who should feel upset with you! You four don’t only break your promise to visit me, but  you also betrayed me!”

“Are you done?” Summer said while she standing up and she faced her old friend .“We didn’t betray you. We used our powers to make the world a better place, but during our travels we realized something and that something was the reason why we didn’t wanted to help you.”

“And what is that something!?”

“There can’t be light without dark”

“There can’t be life without death”

“There can’t be good without evil”

Hearing those voices made the hermit turn and see the those who spoke those words. A girl with white hair, Winter. A girl with long green hair, Spring. A girl with short brown hair, Autumn. The original four maidens were together again, with him. Why did all of them look at him with disappointment? He had not done anything wrong! He just wanted to end all the evils of the world. Why did the maidens refuse to understand his noble reasons!? He had decided to do that for them. To create a world in which the five of them could be together again. A world in which they didn’t have anything to worry about. He continued to look at the maidens, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, they had settled in that order. Why can’t they understand him? Why….

“There can’t be hope without despair.” Summer said. “What we realized in our travels, is that the world needs a balance.”

“The living can’t exist without death and death can’t exist without life.” Spring said.

“What Spring is trying to say.” Winter said. “Is that you can’t have a perfect world. A world with peace sound nice, but where there is peace sooner or later there will be war. In the world, every day someone dies and someone is born. Every day someone hurts themself and someone gets a wound healed. For each Grimm there is a hunter ready for stop it.”

“We understand what you wanted.” Autumn said. “But the way in which you wanted to get it wasn’t the best one. Even if you had achieved it, sooner or later your new humanity would have done the same. That is the law of the world. I’m not saying that a world with peace is impossible, but we can’t live that way forever. For each period of war humanity will have a long period of peace. Our travels show us that. We didn’t want to betray you, we did what we believed was the beat for the world.”

“Girls…” He whispered.

“Maybe.” Summer said “If you had seen more of the world, or if we had talked more about our travels, you would have understood what we understand about the world.”

The hermit look at each and every one of them; Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. They had saved him for his loneliness, they had become the first friends that he had in a very long time, they had kept their promise and used their new magic powers for good. They had even kept their promise to visit him, and how did he repay them for that? He made them sacrifice themselves to stop him. He deprived them of a longer life. Maybe Summer was right, if he had known more about world, if he had learned sooner what the maidens had learned about the world, maybe none of this would have happened. He turned to look at the maidens again, but this time no one was showed signs of disappointment, this time they were looking at him with understanding.

“Hey.” Autumn said, her sisters looking at her and the four of them were smiling. “In the end we kept our promise. We came to visit you.”

Hearing that make the hermit smile, the first genuine smile that he had in years. Even after what he had done, the maidens’ hearts still held forgiveness for him. A single tear rolled down his cheek, he had been blind. Blind about how the world worked, blind about the world’s balance, blind about everything around him. He felt so… stupid.

The maidens were watching him and each of them extended a hand to him and the four of them said at the same time, “Let’s go home, [      ].”

The hermit looked confused but he quickly understood and a smile appeared on his face. He had forgotten it but now, he was not Exitium or The Hermit, he had remembered his true name.

.

.

.

Ruby was having the worst headache of her life, but she quickly opened her eyes. The first thing that she found was that she was lying on the ground and Exitium was in front of her. Ruby began to feel scared, her eyes had stopped shining and even though she had awoken her silver-eyed powers, she didn’t know how to call them now. This was bad, she quickly stood up and grabbed Crescent Rose but, to her surprise, Exitium looked at her with a smile on his face and the words “Thank you” came out of his mouth. Ruby didn’t get it, but from what she could tell, Exitium had no intention of attacking her again. Furthermore, he had begun to disintegrate, his body was turning into small spheres of light. Even as he was vanishing Ruby had something to say to him.

“You said that love makes people do stupid things.” She said, remembering the horrible moment when Summer and Raven were injured. She feel guilty for that but something very useful had come from that event, her silver-eyed powers. What she was going to say had much to do with that. “But I think, that love makes people stronger.”

“I could not agree more.” Were Exitium’s final words, but he never stopped smiling.

His whole body began to shine with white light and turned into small spheres. The light exploded and the spheres began to fall from the sky like snow and when they touched the ground they disappeared.

“Beautiful.” Ruby whispered.

It was a beautiful rain of light. When Mia stood up from the ground she was about to complain about how her hands and body were hurting, but when she saw the light balls, she said nothing and just watched light rain. Weiss and Silver soon arrived, Silver’s right arm was around Weiss’s shoulder so she could help Silver walk. Weiss also said that the spheres were beautiful but Silver didn’t get a chance to say anything as Mia ran over to her cousin and grabbed her around the waist. The two began to laugh as Mia was hugged Silver, lifting her in the air began to spin. The laughs didn’t stop and the two were saying the same thing.

“We did it! We did it! We won!!!!”

“Good job.” Weiss said to Ruby.

“Thanks.” Ruby said putting one of her hands on her head. “My head is killing me. Maybe… a kiss will be able to send the pain away?”

Weiss’ cheeks turned pink, of course she had wished to kiss Ruby again. This time by her own will, but it was a little embarrassing to think about it. Before she could say or do something, Yang came out of nowhere are tackled Ruby and began to hug her.

“I’m so proud of you!” Yang was said while Ruby was whispering. “I can’t breath…”

Blake stood next to Weiss, they tood side by side watching Mia and Silver. Mia was still embracing Silver and the two of them were crying. This time those were not tears of sadness, they were tears of joy. Weiss and Blake thought that as long as their children were happy then everything was going be fine. Before they realize it, Mia was hugging Blake and Silver was hugging Weiss.

“We did it” Mia said, trying to control her tears. “We really did it.”

“I know.” Blake said stroking Mia’s head. “Yang and I saw what you did and we couldn’t feel any more proud of you.”

Mia sniffed and her cheeks turned pink. Hearing that while her mama was hugging her felt so good. Weiss was also stroking Silver’s head, Weiss also told Silver that she had done a wonderful job and Silver just limited herself to responding with “Thank you” and hugged her mom with more strength.

Meanwhile, Summer open her… eye. She felt disorientated. Her head and chest were hurting her a lot, but she could see the white spheres falling to the ground and, as difficult as it was, she began to shake Raven, trying to wake her. She continued shaking the faunus that until she saw the blonde open her eyes. No one had the strength to talk, so Summer just pointed at the spheres. Raven was going to use her right arm to grab one of them, but she quickly remembered the lack of that arm. So she used her left arm and when one of the spheres touched her hand, it just disappeared. Summer and Raven turned to look at each other and smile, they understood what was happened and, with smiles on their faces they fell unconscious again.

Mia and Silver were happy to have completed their mission, but they quickly remembered their sisters. So, despite of the pain they were in, they ran to the place where they had left Summer and Raven, quickly followed by their parents. What they found was that the girls were still unconscious but smiling. Mia didn’t waste time and took her sister’s weapon and quickly opened a portal. Yang carried Raven in her arms and Blake was going to carry Summer, but Ruby said that she wanted to be the one in do that. Blake put Summer on Ruby’s back and then she helped Weiss with Silver. One by one they entered into the portal, the last in do that was Ruby. Before she entered to the portal she look behind her, she was looking the place that she was leaving and felt that what had happen felt so unreal. It all felt as though it had been a dream. She looked at Summer one last time before jumping into the portal, right now her daughter was more important than thinking about what had happened.

.

.

.

Summer and Raven were a pair with an awesome luck, or at least that was what Oobleck said. He was full of questions but he decided to leave that aside because, as a doctor, he must help the two wounded girls. He said that the blood lost had forced the girls unconscious and even though they were stable now, they were in coma. He also repeated things that everyone knew, Raven left eye and ear had no longer worked and Summer had lost her right eye. Their lives were no longer in danger, though, and the the only thing they needed to do was wait for the girls to wake up, but no one knew when that would happen.

“But what I don’t understand.” Oobleck said looking at Silver and Mia “Is why your sisters immune system is so weak. It took much longer for them to stop their bleeding than most people and their wounds are taking a very long time to heal. Is there something that I should know about them?”

“Well…” Mia said. “Hypothetically, how much time should a person must sleep in six years?”

“Interesting question.” He said. “A person needs to sleep of at least eight hours. The year have 365 days, if we do our calculation the answer is… 17, 520 hours. Why do you ask that?”

“What happened…” Silver said. “Our sisters suffer insomnia and during six years they had the sleep equivalent to a year and half… maybe less.”

“I see.” Oobleck said. “Even if someone gets used to the lack of sleep, sooner or later the body demands that sleep. That explains why your sisters’ wounds are healing so slow. Well, I’m going for a cup of coffee, I need to keep an eye on those two during the night.”

“Thanks for everything, Professor” Ruby said.

“You’re welcome and it’s **Doctor.** ”

Without another word he left, leaving the girls alone. Mia and Silver sitting on the floor against the wall and RWBY looked at each other. Everyone felt relief to know that Summer and Raven’s lives were not in danger, but Silver and Mia looked so sad. No one knew how to cheer up them, and everyone hear someone say Mia and Silver’s names. When they turned to see who had spoken, Qrow was standing in front of Mia and Silver and the girls just said “Grunkle”. Hearing that made Ruby and Yang looked at each other.

“Don’t ask questions, Uncle!” Yang said.

“W-we can explain why they called you Grunkle!” Ruby said.

“There’s nothing to explain.” Qrow said. “I know everything. So, girls, would you mind leaving me alone with them?”

The fact that Qrow knew about Silver and Mia’s true identities should have been obvious and maybe as the one who knew the girls for longest, he was the most likely to be able to cheer them up. Yang grabbed Blake’s hand and they left. Convincing Weiss was a little difficult, but Ruby was able to make her leave as well. Once they were alone Qrow sat down between his great-nieces. Silver said that she believed that Qrow should still unconscious but he said that he had gotten used to that spray and that his hangovers were worst than that. Glynda, on the other hand, was the one who was still unconscious. After that, the three of them returned to silence, until Mia began to talk.

“It’s always the same, Raven always gets hurt and I’m never able to help her. We have been together since the beginning, but… sometimes I feel that she cares more about me than herself.”

“I feel so useless.” Silver said. “I’m fast, I can do a lot of things with my speed, but I never arrive on time to help Summer and she always gets hurt protecting me. ‘A big sister’s duty is protecting the little one’ she always tells me, but… I don’t want to be a girl who always needs her big sister to protect her. But no matter how much I try, everytime is the same.”

Qrow sighed and he put his arms around the girls’ shoulders. Silver and Mia felt a little strange, the Qrow Branwen they knew never showed signs of affection like that. It felt strange, but also nice. Mia and Silver turned to look at their Grunkle’s face, but he didn’t look at them.

“Why do you feel so bad?” He said .“If you hadn’t followed Summer and Raven, if you hadn’t told the truth to your parents, if you hadn’t decided to do what you did, Summer and Raven wouldn’t be alive now. Mia, between you and Raven, which one is the older?”

“Raven.” She answered. “She is older than me by twenty minutes but we don’t care about it.”

“So, the two of you are the little sisters. You should feel proud of yourselves. As the little ones you two protected, helped, and saved your big sisters. The little ones protected the older ones. Unlike me, I’m just a useless big brother who was unable to protect, help, or save his little sister. You did something that I couldn’t, and you should feel proud of that.”

“You never told us that you were the older twin.” Silver said.

“Just by five minutes, but yeah… I was the older one.”

No one said a word after that. Mia and Silver put their heads on their grunkle’s shoulders. He was right, if they had decided to not follow after Summer and Raven, if they had not told the truth to their parents, if they had not done what they done, then who knows what would have happened. Maybe something worse than what actually happened to them. This time the little sisters had helped their big sisters, but now the only thing that everyone could do was wait them to wake up.

The seconds become minutes, the minutes become hours, and the hours become days.

Five long days passed and December 7th become December 12nd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ilax and I are still alive!!!! Sorry for the long wait but…things happened. Anyway we’re back and ready to finish this, althought we really don’t know when the next chapter is going to be ready, so, please have patience.
> 
> Wow….even for my is hard to believe that the fight is well…over and the climax of the fic is near, pretty near, well Summer and Raven turn to be pretty tough to kill while Silver and Mia crazy plans always work pretty well, anyway sooner or later those girls are going to disappear but this is not time to talk about it, as always, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	29. We need to talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m still alive! Well, I have something very important to say but that comment would be at the end of the chapter, for now, just enjoy.

_Everything felt so unreal. Her body was shaking and she saw the two bodies in front of her. She shook them, but they didn’t move at all. There was blood on the ground and she turned to look at her blonde friend. The blonde was hugging herself so tightly that seemed to be hurting herself. There were two bodies next to her and her face, hair, body, and arms  were all covered with blood. After seeing that, the girl decided to look at her own hands. They were shaking and completely covered with blood. She clenched her teeth. She was breathing hard and her body began to shake with more force. What had happened? What had they done!? Red was the only color to she could see; in her hands, in the ground, in her friend’s body, in her clothes, everywhere._

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”

Summer opened her eyes and sat herself up. Her body was still shaking and she was sweating. Her breath came in hard gasps as she tried to calm herself. She quickly looked down at her hands and felt was relieved when she noticed that they weren’t covered in blood. Once Summer was able to calm herself, she noticed that her right eye was covered with something. Touching that part, she could feel bandages and a stabbing pain. She also felt how her chest was hurting. Memories of what had happened flashed to her mind. She had saved her mother and, consequently, she got hurt. The last thing that Summer could remember was her sister’s face, crying and smiling at the same time. Summer began to look around, she was in a room, sitting in a bed. How and why was she there was something that she didn’t know. But, maybe her wounds had something to do with it.

“Good morning… at least, I think it’s morning.”

Hearing that voice made Summer realize that Raven was there as well. The blonde was lying on a bed a few meters away from Summer’s. Raven’s right eye was closed and she was waving her hand in front of her left eye. When her cousin asked why she was doing that, Raven sighed and sat up in the bed and answered that she was confirming the obvious. Her left eye no longer worked, just like her left ear. The second thing that Summer asked was how long Raven had been awake and the blonde replied that she had woken up only a few minutes ago. The two decided to get out of bed, but when they tried, Raven grabbed her stomach and Summer put her hands on her chest. The two felt stabbing pains in their respective wounds, but it was over quickly and they looked at each other and laughed a little.

“You know.” Summer said. “I’m used to my wounds healing slowly, but the pain is what always bothered me.”

“You know that I know that feeling well too.” Raven said. She removed her arm from her stomach and began to look at Summer, a look of melancholy appeared on the blonde’s face. “So… I guess this is goodbye to your special power.”

“Yeah.” Summer whispered while she put her right hand over her right eye. Summer knew very well that she had lost that eye. “But, I’m sure that I won’t need that power anymore.”

Even if what had happened to them after saving Ruby was a little blurred, they remembered very well the white-light sphere rain who signaled that Exitium had been defeated. Summer and Raven were finally happy. After six years of training and planning, the lack of sleep and constant strain, the future had been changed. Their parents were alive and they would have a bright future but, right now, neither of them wanted to celebrate that. They needed to see Silver and Mia, after all, neither knew for how long they had been unconscious and their little sisters must be worried. They began to walk to the door and Summer opened it. When she did that, Mia fell backwards through the doorway and hit the ground. She had fallen asleep while sitting against the door. Summer and Raven also saw Silver was using Mia’s lap as a pillow and she was also asleep. Thanks to the impact Mia’s eyes fluttered open.

“S… sis?” Mia whispered. It seemed that the hit had left her a little confused. She closed her eyes again, but she suddenly opened them again “Raven!”

Mia got up but, as Silver was in her lap, when the black-haired girl did that she fell and hit her head against the floor. But Mia didn’t even notice because, right now, she only cared about hugging Raven.

“What happen?” Silver asked confused, but when she saw Summer, Silver couldn’t feel any more awake and, like Mia, she jumped up to hug her sister.

Summer and Raven’s wounds began to hurt, but they didn’t care. They eagerly returned the hugs. Silver and Mia started to cry, they had been waiting for five longs days to see their sisters wake, to see that they were fine. There was always the possibility that everything was just a dream, but Silver and Mia didn’t care, they were too happy right now. Summer’s chest was hurting and Raven’s stomach too, but they didn’t say a single word about it, they didn’t want to spoil their sisters’ happiness.

“What’s going on?” Ruby said, sounding sleepy.

The first thing that she did was pinch one of her cheeks to make sure it was not a dream. “Oh my gosh… They’re awake!!! Weiss, wake up! Summer’s awake! Yang, Blake, you guys too! Wake up!!!”

Before realizing what was exactly going on, the pain in Summer’s chest increased as both Ruby and Weiss hugged her. The same happened to Raven when Yang and Blake began to hug her.

“Don’t you dare scare me like that ever again!”

“Thanks Oum you’re fine”

“Take more care of yourself!!”

Summer and Raven began to hear things like that. Everyone had been very worried for them and, since neither of them know how much time had passed, thinking about the days, or even weeks, they were unconscious made them feel guilty. Those days meant days of their families worried about them. As the pain from their wounds grew in intensity, Summer and Raven asked in a friendly way for everyone give them some space. When that happened, Summer put her hands on her chest and began to breath deeply and slowly trying to make the pain go away. Raven began to squeeze her stomach.

“Oh, right...” Mia said while she was wiping away her tears. “Slow healing.”

“Slow healing means excessive pain when the wounds are touched.” Silver said trying to clean her tears, but there were more coming out. “Sorry, we forgot that.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re sorry and everything.” Yang said drying her tears and smiling. “What’s matters now is that you two are awake and fine. That’s the only thing that we care about right now”

“Thanks, Yang. I’m glad to hear that.” Raven replied with a little smile of her own, but that smile disappear when she notice how the blonde was staring at her in a very strange way, like she was expecting to hear something else. “W-what?”

“Yang?” She said. “I was expecting you to call me mom.”

Hearing that made Summer and Raven look at each other, they had totally forget about that. Silver and Mia had told them the truth about everything. They began to look at their younger sisters with a sort of dark look, causing Mia and Silver to laugh nervously. They remembered that they had broken the promise of not talking about Team SSMR’s true identities. Suddenly, Mia said something about searching for Oobleck to have him check on Summer and Raven. Silver said that she wanted to accompany her. The two girls ran away as fast as they could. The younger sisters were happy to have their older sisters back, but still… they didn’t want to be scolded.

Weiss looked back to Summer after the girls left and saw that Ruby had been the only one who refused to stop her hug. “Come on! Leave her already”

“I don’t want! Do you have an idea of how long I have waited for this!?”

“You know that I feel the same but, remember, you’re hurting her with that hug.”

“Is fine.” Summer said. “Her hug doesn’t hurt me as much as the previous one.”

Raven was watching her cousin with a smile while she felt Yang pricking her cheek saying over and over again. “Come on call me mom. Just once. I can accept dad too.”

In Raven’s defense, she really wanted to call Yang “Mom,” but there was the fact that the age difference between them, at that moment, was only one year. Raven just felt weird because of that. It was the only reason why she wanted to call her parents by their given names instead. She felt Yang stop and, instead, she felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Blake.

“Would you mind if we talk with you outside?” She asked.

Of course Raven didn’t mind. Spending time with her parents was great, but she could feel that what they wanted to talk about was something that Mia told them. Before leaving the room, she turn towards her cousin and aunts. It seems that they also wanted to talk with Summer privately. Yes, Silver and Mia must have something to do with that. Once Raven, Blake, and Yang left the room, Summer asked “What do you want to tell me?” Hearing that make Ruby release her and look at Weis. Weiss turned to look at Ruby as well, no one knew how to start, but Summer needed an answer.

“Well…” Ruby said “What happened is that… Silver and Mia told us about the past. Our future, and…”

“They told us how we died” Weiss said.

Ruby and Weiss waited but Summer said nothing. They remained standing there in silence for several seconds, maybe minutes, until the huntresses heard their daughter sigh. Without words they could discern the sadness in Summer.

“Now that you know the truth” Summer said, there were tears coming out of her left eye. “Do you still see me as you daughter?”

Weiss bit her lip when she heard that question. Of course Summer would ask that, Silver had told them everything. All the things that Summer had suffered, the insomnia, the nightmares, and the manner in which Summer had blamed herself. What could Weiss tell her? Summer had a trauma which could not be erased with works like “It’s not your fault.” It was complicated, very complicated. Weiss did not know what to do or say, but then she heard Ruby’s voice.

“Of course I still see you as my daughter!” Ruby voice sounded determined but she quickly began to scratch her head. She was thinking of what she was going to say. “Though, since right now we are the same age, it’s a little weird to say that, but yes, no matter what you did, I still see you as my daughter.”

Hearing that made Weiss sigh. Why did Ruby always know what to say? What Ruby had said was exactly what Summer needed to here. To know that they still saw her as their daughter no matter what had happened in the past. But Weiss noticed Summer was clenching her fists and was crying even harder. Was she happy from hearing what Ruby had said? Weiss wanted to believe that, Ruby too, but they quickly realized that Summer was not happy.

“How?” Summer whispered looking at her moms. “How could you say that? You know what I did! I killed you! Both of you!!! Because of my actions, Silver grew up without parents! Without her family at her side!”

“But you were there.” Weiss said. “You are her big sister and you were at her side. How could you say that she grow up without her family?”

“I stopped thinking of myself as Silver’s sister when you died!” The bandage over her right eye began to turn red. The wound had opened and a thin line of blood began to run down her cheek like a tear. “I’m the monster who took her parents’ life. I worry about Silver because I feel guilty for what I did to her. I’m a monster… A KILLER! How could you say that you still see me as your daughter? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“It’s make sense to me!” Ruby and Weiss said at the same time.

They turned to look at each other. Neither had expected to say something at the same time, but that was not time to worry about that. They know what they should do, and they both stepped forward and hugged Summer. The girl was still crying, but Ruby and Weiss held her as close as they could, making sure they didn’t hurt her. The words “Why” and “How” were came out of Summer’s mouth.

“It was just an accident.” Ruby said, petting the girl’s head. “You didn’t want to do it and we weren’t able to stop ourselves. You knew that, in that moment, Weiss and I began to lose our humanity. But you saved us. Between dying. or hurting my child, I would choose the death everytime. Summer you did nothing wrong. I’m sure that our futureselves thought the same thing when that happened. You’re not our killer, you are our savior. You saved our futureselves from doing something that we would have regreted.”

“You tell Silver to not blame herself for what happened to you.” Weiss said, she was referring to the incident in which Summer got the scar on her chest. “You should follow your own advice and you should listen what Ruby and I have told you. We’re your mothers after all. Nothing was your fault. Blaming yourself for something that you didn’t want to do is not right. Remember this, no matter what you have done, we still love you because you are our daughter after all.”

Summer began to cry harder, but it was not a cry of sadness, it was a cry of joy. How many times had she had wanted to hear those words? Summer had always knew that her parents never blamed her for what she did, but to actually hear her parents pastselves say those words made her feel relieved. Even if Ruby and Weiss already knew how they had died in the future, even if they knew who was their killer, they had decided to forgive her. She cried and hugged her mothers as hard as she could. Ruby and Weiss returned the hug and the three of them remained there, until Summer was able to calm herself.

“Thank you, mom, mum.” Summer said cleaning her eye. “I really needed that.”

“I’m really glad to hear that, dear.” Ruby said, she was still hugging Summer. Weiss was helping to clean her daughter’s face, the part that had blood thanks to the open wound. “I can’t wait to raise you and Silver together with Weiss.”

“What are you talking about?” Weiss said and she saw how the two red-hood girls begin to look at her. Ruby and Summer looked very confused. “As far as I know, we’re just partners. Yang and Blake are the ones who are a couple, but in our case, we’re teammates and just that.”

“B-but we kissed each other!”

“That was an accident!”

One thought come to Summer’s mind when she heard her parents’ conversation, and that thought was _“Uh-oh.”_

**Outside of the room, the talk between Yang, Blake and Raven.**

“Okay, talk.” Raven said leaning herself against the wall.

Yang and Blake looked at each other, they didn’t know how to start. Blake crossed her arms and Yang began to scratch her head, this was more difficult than they had expected. They wanted to talk about something which brought Raven horrible memories, they wanted to make sure she knew that they did not blame her for that. Yang took a deep breath and decided to be the one to talk.

“Mia told us how we died in the future.”

For a short period of time, no one dared to say a single word, but then Yang and Blake saw how Raven began to laugh. She cover her face with her hand and drops of water where falling from her cheek. It was hard to see the blonde faunus like that, it was like she had totally lost her mind. Several seconds passed until Raven stopped and she looked at her parents. Her red-eyes did not have a single shine of life, it was like she was empty inside.

“Mama.” Raven said. “Remember what you told me when I tried to kill Adam? “Don’t turn yourself into a killer for someone like him.” Well, I regret to inform you, but I’m already a killer, **_your_** killer.”

“I know.” Blake said, she was biting her lip and clenching her fists. It was so hard to see her daughter like that. “But what happened is not your fault.”

“Do you have any idea how many times grunkle and auntie told me that? I was the one who was holding the weapon. Everything is my fault. And you’re not the right person to talk about it. Remember that you blamed yourself for what Adam did to dad.”

Blake clenched her fists harder. It was true she had done the same, she had blamed herself for something that she did not do. She was still blaming herself for that. Seeing Raven in that moment was like seeing herself; her fears and doubts, the way in which she always blamed herself. Blake realized that she and Raven were so alike, more than she had originally thought.

“I’m a monster.” Raven whispered. “I’m the monster who killed her own parents. The monster who left her sister without her parents. The monster who was unable to save her grandmother. The monster who hurt her twin. How can you stand to have me in your sight? How can you bear to continue talking to me? Don’t you feel anything!? The person who killed you is standing right in front of you!!! How could you still call me your daughter!?”

Raven had lost the control of herself, she began to cry as hard as she could. The wound in her stomach had opened and the color white of the bandages slowly began to change to red. Blake gritted her teeth, what should they do? It was hard to see Raven like that, she was hating herself. Blake turned to look at Yang, the blonde looked stoic but Blake saw her sigh and then she put herself in front of Raven. Yang took her daughter by the shoulders and…

“What are you doing!?” Blake said, Yang hit her head against Raven’s.

“Now I see…” Yang said watching her daughter's eyes “That your eyes and name aren’t the only thing that you inherited from my mother, and that your ears aren’t the only thing that you inherited from Blake. You also inherited their personalities, blaming yourself for something that you didn’t do or didn’t wanted to do. Seriously, why is it so hard for you to forgive yourself? I’m sure that our futureselves did not blame you. On the contrary, I’m sure that they feel grateful, knowing my ownself, between hurting my child or death, I will choose the death.”

Raven whispered the word “Mom” and felt a hand on one of her shoulders. She whispered “Mama” when she saw Blake was looking upon her with sympathetic eyes. Before realize it, Raven was being embraced by her parents.

“When I met Mia.” Blake began to say. “She told me to stop blaming myself for what had happened to Yang. She told me that, because you told her the same in the past. You told her to stop blaming herself for what had happened to your arm. You should follow your own advice and think about this, if us, your parents pastselves, know what you did and we are not blaming you for what happened, what makes you think that our futureselves would blame you for that?”

Raven remained in silence while Yang and Blake were still hugging her. When she could no longer control herself, she broke down into tears. They were tears of joy. How many time she had wanted to be forgiven? How many times had she wanted to hear her parents say that? She could not believe it. Yang and Blake had learned the truth about how they died and they did not blame her for it. She had been forgiven, she could not feel more happy, the three remain like that for a few minutes until Raven was able to calm herself.

“Feeling better?” Yang asked.

“Yeah.” Raven sniffed. “I really needed that.”

Blake and Yang hugged their daughter again. They felt really glad to hear that and suddenly the door behind them opened and they saw Weiss walk out... with Ruby holding her right foot, Ruby was literally being dragged across the floor.

“I’m so sorry for didn’t say it sooner!” Ruby said. “Weiss, I love you! Please go out with me, be my girlfriend!”

“I’ll think about it.” Weiss said and she was still dragged her partner across the floor.

“Ruby knows that Weiss is trying to play a joke on her, right?” Blake.

“Maybe.” Yang and Raven said.

“I’m pretty sure that that wasn’t the love confession that Silver was expecting.” Summer said.

“They look like a pair of dorks”

The girls freaked out when they heard that voice. No one had realize that Qrow was there. Thanks to him, Summer and Raven found out that it was six o’clock p.m on December 12nd. Qrow also said that he had seen Mia running away with Silver and, when he asked her why they was running, Mia had told him that they were running away for their sisters and that they were also searching Oobleck so he could check on Summer and Raven’s wounds. Yang got the feeling that Qrow wanted to talk with Summer and Raven, so, she took Blake’s hand and suggested to her to help Mia and Silver search for **_Doctor_** Oobleck. Yang herself went after Weiss and Ruby to help Ruby to understand that Weiss was trying to play a joke on her. Once the other other girls were gone, Qrow leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. Summer and Raven looked at each other, no one know what to say.

“Raven and Summer…” Qrow whispered, the girls turn to look at him. He had said their names, but they knew he was not talking about them. “…would have loved to know you. You didn’t just inherit their names, but also their personalities. When I look at you it’s like I’m seeing them in their school days. It’s kinda weird.”

Raven sighed, if she had been stronger or faster then she would have been able to save her grandma. She felt a hand on her shoulder, Summer knew Raven very well, so, the red-hooded girl had decided to give some support to her cousin. Then the two of them felt Qrow put his hands on their heads.

“They would have been proud of you, but I’m pretty sure that they would have hated to know that you almost ended up like them. Don’t risk your lives like that ever again.”

“You’re beginning to sound like the Grunkle that we know.” Summer said with a smile on her face, Raven laugh when she saw Qrow’s face.

“Don’t say that! You’re making me feel old.”

The only thing that they do after that was laugh.

Summer and Raven’s wounds took several more days to heal. They remained in their room for nine days as Oobleck told them that he wouldn’t let them leave the room until they were fully recovered. Indeed that was what he did. Of course, he allowed visitors, so most of the day Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Mia, and Silver were in that room talking with Summer and Raven. Raven was still armless, since her right arm had been completely destroyed during the fight against Exitium, and Mia had to start from scratch with the arm’s reconstruction. Despite being an excellent mechanic, the reconstruction was hard because Mia did not have all the pieces. Summer sent a message to Ironwood and he sent the pieces. Finally, Team JNPR was able to meet the whole Team SSMR.

_Ruby with long hair and a blonde Blake!_

That had been the first thing who Nora said when she met Silver and Mia’s sisters and as soon as Pyrrha recognized them as the girls who had saved her from Cinder. Jaune, Ren, and Nora began to thank them for helping Pyrrha. Of course, they asked about what had happened to them, but Ruby managed to distract them long enough they forgot that question. The following days were very peaceful and althougth Summer and Raven had been forgiven for what they done in the future, they still had nightmares about that day. But, this time Mia and Silver were at their side, trying to help them have a peaceful night. Finally, on December 21st, Summer and Raven’s wounds healed completely and Oobleck allow them the leave the room. The first time that Summer saw herself in the mirror after the bandage on her face were removed… she felt weird. The scar on her face made her look like Ruby, the Ruby of her timeline. But, now instead of thinking about it, she only wanted to spend the day with her family.

**Xiao Long-Belladonna family.**

“Finally!” Mia cried she turned to look at her sister. “I’ve never saw her sleep so peacefully.”

She had finally finished rebuilding her sister’s right arm and then she decided to rest her head in Yang’s lap. Raven was resting in Blake’s lap, and the blonde faunus was asleep. Blake was running her fingers through the girl’s hair and Yang began to pet Mia’s head. The black-haired girl quickly fall asleep, she had spent several nights without sleep just to finish her sister’s arm and now she can finally get some rest. Now she only needed to wait until Raven woke up so she could give her the arm. “The nerve connection hurts like hell.” Yang said when Blake asked her about that part, the couple remained in silence.

“This feel so unreal.” Blake said making Yang began to watch her and wonder what she was trying to say. “I’m never had a proper family, my parents hardly spent time with me, and I never saw myself with one. Now… I have two daughters. That’s why I say that everything feel so unreal, I still can’t believe that I finally have the family that I didn’t had in my childhood.”

“Ow, Blakey you’re going to make me cry.” Yang said sounding sarcastic. “But I think that you already started without me.”

Blake feel how Yang began to wipe the tears who were running down her cheeks. The faunus did not know when she had started to cry. Yang and Blake were staring at each other in the eyes, when they did that it was like they were the only people in the world. Yang rested one of her hands on Blake’s cheek and slowly they began to approach each other. Their faces were close, _their lips were close,_ and before realized it, they were kissing each other. The first kiss that they shared since they become a couple. The day when they confessed their feeling for each other Yang had wanted to kiss Blake, but she respected Blake decision to wait, and the wait was worth it. They did not know how long they stayed like that, kissing each other like they were the only people in the whole world. The sound of a Scroll taking a picture brought them back to the reality. Mia was smiling while she was holding her Scroll.

“Now that I have what I wanted… see’ya!!!”

And she run away. Once Mia disappeared, Yang and Blake turned to look back at each other, their faces turned deep shades of red and they looked back in the direction Mia had run off in. Yang got up and began to chase her daughter, “Come back here!!!” the blonde cried. Blake sighed and then she looked down at Raven.

“You and Mia planned this?” She asked, but she did not get any answer or a sign that Raven was pretending to be asleep. Raven appeared to be very much asleep. Blake began to pat the girl’s head, in the end everything had been Mia’s idea.

**Rose-Schnee family.**

“How could you say that!?” Ruby and Silver scream to Summer, she had covered her ears.

A few minutes ago, Ruby had asked Summer, “Please show me your weapon!” Ruby had been able to see Summer’s White Rose one time but she really wanted to see it again, after all the young leader was a weapon maniac. She had asked the same to Silver and the reddish-white haired girl agreed, now it was Summer’s turn. But, instead of doing what her mother had asked, she asked “Why?” Ruby wanted to see White Rose.

“My weapon is basically a white version of Crescent Rose.” Summer had said but her mom did not care, then Summer said something that she never should have said. She refered to Crescent Rose and White Rose as “just weapons”.

“How could you not understand the meaning of a weapon!?” Ruby said “Weapons are the more amazing thing that the human being have ever created!”

“Weapons are the best way for know someone, the design, the color, the joints, the functions. How could you refer to Crescent Rose and White Rose as “just weapons”!?”

After that Ruby and Silver began to look at each other. Until that moment neither of them had meet someone with the same passion about weapons. They held hands and then they began to hug each other. Without words they easily know that they were “weapon buddies.” Weiss began to laugh when she saw that scene between mother and daughter and then she began to pat Summer’s head.

“It’s funny when you start to think about it.” Weiss said catching Summer’s attention. “Silver looks like me, but she has Ruby’s personality and…”

“I look like her, but I have your personality. I hear that very often. Auntie used to say the same, she also thought that it was funny”

“But I should feel grateful that our personalities are similar, otherwise…” Weiss made a small glyph appear on her hand and quickly, a white rose appear in her hand “The special training that you gave me to teach me how to do this could had been very different.”

“Not bad, your abilities in summoning have improved but…” Like her mother, Summer made a glyph appear in her hand, but instead of just one rose, a whole bouquet of roses appear in her hand. “You still need practice.”

Weiss and Summer looked each other in the eyes and they just smiled. The roses in their hands become powder, the family remain in silence until they saw Mia. She was screaming Silver’s name and behind her was Yang. Mia hide herself behind her cousin and Ruby took Yang by the shoulders, trying to stop her from whatever that she was wanted to do with Mia. Quickly, Yang told to her sister what had happened and that made Ruby remembered that Silver had done the same. Ruby turned to look at her daughter.

“You erased the picture, right?”

Silver and Mia turned to each other, the black-haired girl took her cousin’s hand and Silver began to run. Silver’s legs had recovered a few days ago and now she was able to use her semblance. Ruby and Yang turned to each other and then she began to run, trying to chase them.

“Come back here, NOW!” The sisters yelled. Weiss and Summer began to laugh and they decided to go to the place where Blake and Raven were. Those four would find them eventually.

Raven awoke around three o’clock. Mia and Silver were still pursued by Ruby and Yang, so, Summer decided to help her cousin with the nerve reconnection. Blake paid attention to the procedure because she felt that she would be the one to help Yang with that in the future. Weiss also paid attention, but she was thinking about find a way to make the reconnection less painful. Once Raven had her right arm back, she decided to not cover it with bandages.

“That would be a waste of time” She said when Summer asked about that.

After that they decided to help Ruby and Yang with Mia and Silver. Somehow Summer and Raven were able to convince their sisters to erase the pictures. Both families spend the rest of the day talking and playing, though, the last part was something who only Yang, Mia, Ruby, and Silver decided to do. Now it was three o’clock in the morning of December 22nd, the day in which Team SSMR would return to their future.

“We should say goodbye in person.” Silver said.

Summer and Raven had wanted to leave without telling anyone since the girls did not know at which exact moment they would disappear. Summer and Raven thought that leaving without saying goodbye would be the more correct thing but now that the girls were about to leave… Silver and Mia did not want to leave without saying “Goodbye” to their parents. Each one of them had write a letter explaining why they left and they planned to leave it in their parents room, but Silver and Mia felt that doing that was not correct. Summer and Raven turned to look at each other and sigh, but before any of them could say something, they heard the voice of someone.

“You just love to run away in the middle of the night, don’t you?”

When they turned to see the owner of that voice, they were not surprised when they saw Qrow. Glynda was with him, but the girls were surprised when they saw that Ozpin was with them too. His leg was still pretty bad and he should still be in bed. Ozpin felt he needed to be there, since they know that Team SSMR would return to their future on December 22nd. They had already expected something like that so, that was basically the reason why they were outside of the girls’ room.

“Seriously.” Glynda said. “Who taught you to do these kind of things?”

“Well, Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee raised us in a very shitty future, so, you can figure out the answer to that question.”

Mia laugh after saying that but Raven hit her on the head. Mia needed to show respect to her elders. After that Summer explained the they did not know at which time they would disappear and the last thing that they wanted was disappear while they were spending time with their parents. After saying that Summer took Ozpin’s hand, she gave him the crystal ball with the powers of the Autumn and Summer Maiden.

“Even if Salem and Exitium had been defeated, this world needs the Maidens. You must know that there are a lot of fairy tales which are real and that’s why the world still needs the Maidens’ protection. When you find a woman with the conviction of be a Maiden, make her touch the crystal ball, one of those powers will be transferred when that happens.”

“I see.” Ozpin said while he put the crystal ball in his pocket. “You can count on me for that.”

Finally, the girls turned to look at Qrow but, instead of say something to him, each one of them took out a letter and they gave it to him. Those were letters that the girls had wrote to their parents and they wanted Qrow to deliver the letters. He sighed and put the letter in one of his pockets then he turned to see his great-nieces.

“Mia, I can say with all my confidence that you took A LOT after Yang, but I can also see some things of Blake in you. You can be a very hyperactive girl and you prefer to hit first and ask questions later but, still, you are a very good girl who cares for her family. Silver, I find really funny how you look like Weiss but have Ruby’s personality. With the proper training I’m sure that you can become one of the more awesome huntresses that this world had seen, be sure to remember that you Lil’ weapon-maniac. Summer… you were named after one of the kindest people that I’ve ever met. Your leadership skills are unmatched, but remember that you can count on ALL your family and not just one of your cousins. Feel proud of your name, I’m sure that you grandmother would have loved to meet you.”

Finally, Qrow faced the last member of the Team SSMR, red eyes met red eyes. Everyone was in silence. The air was tense until Qrow put his left hand in Raven’s shoulder and he smiled at her.

“Raven, remember to always feel proud of your name because you were named after the most awesome sister that I could ask for. Remember that you inherited the eyes of a great woman… man… I don’t know what to say, but I’m sure that Raven would have loved to spend more time with you. You two are so alike…”

“Grunkle…” Raven whispered.

After that the girls hugged him. Qrow felt shocked for a minute but then he returned the hug. He did not to have to wait years just for see those girls again but he must be patient. Ozpin and Glynda looked at each other and smiled because they were seeing a very sweet family moment. Finally, when the family hug stopped, the girls decided to leave but, before they could move a single muscle, Ozpin ask the next.

“Can we know where you are going?”

_To the place of the beginning_

After saying that, Summer, Silver, Mia and Raven left.

.

.

.

Ruby woke up in the middle of the night for one single reason, she needed to go to the bathroom. When she was making her way back to her team’s room, she passed by team SSMR’s room and something inside of her told her to open the door. Thinking that she would find her daughters and nieces asleep, she opened the door and, when she realized that there was no one there, the first thing that she did was run to her team’s room. Ruby did not care if someone heard or saw her, she was totally focused on letting Weiss, Blake, and Yang know that Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven had disappeared, again.

When Ruby arrived to her room, she screamed “WAKE UP!”

Yang was the first one awake and she ask what was happening. As soon as Ruby told her about what she had seen, Yang quickly helped her wake up Weiss and Blake. They could not believe it, why did their children disappear? Why did they decide to go away without say a single word? Team RWBY decided to not waste time, they needed to find them. They left their room just to find Qrow leaning against the wall, it was looked like he had been waiting them.

“If you are searching your children, let me tell you that they no longer inside this building.”

“You…” Weiss said, she sounded pretty upset. “You saw them leave!!! Why you didn’t stop them!? You…”

“Here.” Qrow said, he was showing the letters that SSMR had given to him. “They told me to deliver these letters, I swear that I didn’t read them and I’m pretty sure that the girls wrote why they left without saying a word.”

RWBY turned to each other and each one took a letter. Ruby grabbed Summer’s letter, Weiss had grabbed Silver’s, Blake had grabbed Mia’s, and Yang had grabbed Raven’s. Without a word, and with Qrow watching them, the girls opened the letters and began to read them. These letters were letters that the children had wrote. They were reading Summer, Silver, Mia and Raven good-bye letters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still remember what I wrote at the beginning of the chapter? Well the important comment is that, there’s two chapter left, the next chapter is basically “The end” but there’s also an epilogue, but honestly the next chapter isn’t the one who I wrote here, is an extra, like the character profile chapter, is basically what the girls letters say, anyway, is hard to thing about this fic coming to an end but the only thing that we could do is enjoy this until the end, as always, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Also, for now on I’ll be updating the remaing chapters once a week. Ilax got some free time and now the rest of the chapters are already edited. See you all next week, probably Friday or Thursday, I don’t know.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	30. Goodbye letters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, this is not a chapter. This is what the girls' letters say, enjoy.

**From:** Summer

 **To:** My moms

_I’m pretty sure that when you read this, I won’t be here anymore. I know that this isn’t the best way to say “Goodbye” but I don’t feel strong enough to say “Goodbye” face to face. Silver always says that between the two of us, I’m the stronger one. But the truth is… I’m weak, I’m too weak for say goodbye to you._

_I have always been weak, foolish girl. I still remember when you died six years ago. I heard about my silver eyes by coincidence and I just thought that they were enough for me to be able to help you. I didn’t know that their power need to be activated. And, well, the rest is history. Raven and I followed you and auntie Yang and Blake. The four of you tried to protect us and then…_

_Grunkle tried it, Auntie tried it, but neither was able to convice me that what happened, wasn’t my fault. Even if you yourself forgive me… I will still feel guilty. No matter what happens I’m pretty sure that the feeling won’t leave me. No matter what I think or how many “It’s not your faults” I hear, I just… I can’t stop feeling guilty._

_Sorry. I don’t know why I wrote this._

_Sorry for not saying it sooner, but the reason why I’m leaving this letter is because we’re returning to our time today. It’s a little hard to think how we’re going to return to a timeline which no longer exists, though. It could happen at any time and I don’t want that to happen while we are having a family moment._

_You know, originally, you were supposed to know who I really was. The original plan was to leave Silver and Mia behind the day Exitium awaked. Raven and I know our sisters very well. I know that if I hadn’t returned Silver would have been very sad but, with Mia at her side, she would have been able to move forward. Sometimes I feel that Mia is a better sister to Silver than I could ever be._

_I couldn’t express with words how happy I felt when I saw you again, Mum. Do you remember it? You were saying that you were a bad leader and then I told you “I think that you are a good leader.” It’s true. I always looked up to you for that. You were my role model. “I want to be a leader just like her.” I always thought that when I was a kid, but the circumstances didn’t let me express that happiness. Mom, when I saw you again, I really wanted to hug you. But, knowing you, I didn’t feel surprise when the first thing that you say to me was “It’s time for answers”. I had always felt proud of how I look like Mum, but I also felt very proud when someone told me that I had got your personality. Do you know why I’m the only one with long hair? It’s because I wanted to looked a little more like you, jeje._

_The time that we spent together means a lot to me. It made me remember about the time when we were together, the four of us. Talking to you, spending time with you, training with you, being hugged by you. All of it meant a lot to me. Those simple thing mean everything to me._

_I don’t know what more I can say. I have never be good with words, speaking or writing._

_I could sound a little hypocritical, but I need to say this. Mum, please don’t feel guilty for what happen to my eye. You know that I was expecting something worse and be sure to learn how to use your silver eyes. After all this time I want you to teach me how to use that power. Mom, about your relationship with grandfather, don’t worry about it. Your relationship will improve. Also, please practice your summoning. Auntie taught me how to use my semblance, but this time I want you to teach me that._

_Well, I think that is all._

_Mum… Mom… I love you. I love you more than you can imagine. I’ll see you again, talk to you again, spend time with you again. Those are things that I’ll treasure._

_Thanks for everything, take care and remember this,_

_I love both of you with all my heart._

_Summer._

 

 **From:** Silver.

 **To:** The two most awesome women that I’ve ever meet!

_Merry Christmas!_

_Okay, I know that isn’t Christmas yet, but I really needed to write that. Maybe you already read Summer’s letter, but I’m going to say this anyway, we’re returning to our time today._

_I really wanted to say “Goodbye” in person and spend time together one the last time. But Summer told me that this was the best thing to do, but the feeling isn’t the same. When you died, I was eight. I hardly understood that you wouldn’t come back again. As bad as I feel, I feel worse for Summer. At that time I didn’t know what she had saw or did. A few days after your death, I woke up and went to the bathroom and what I saw was horrible. Summer was trying very hard to clean her arms repeating “The blood won't come off.” but there were nothing on her arms. If I had known what was really going on then maybe I could have helped her._

_Okay, maybe I wasn’t **that** young when you died, but at that time the concept of “Death” was still very weird for me. Everyone told me that you weren’t going come back again and I was unable to understand “Why?” until the Grimm’s incident happened. When I realize how I almost lost Summer, everything made sense to me, about why you won’t return to me ever again._

_Sometimes I feel that auntie felt a little bad every time that she saw me. I think that was because I’m your spitting image Mom._

_Summer is pretty awesome, isn’t she?_

_I really respect her as my older sister. She had to  handle a lot of hard things without complaining. Between us, I envy her relationship with Raven. I’ve always wanted her to feel like she could trust in me like that, but this isn’t time to talk, I mean write about this._

_Mom, when I saw you and grandfather in that ship, I really wanted to tell you the truth, to hug you and tell you how much I have missed you. But, I kept my cool. I did a good job with that, right?._

_Seeing you made me remember all the things that I loved about you. Your personality could be a little harsh but that’s one of the things that I really missed about you. Since Summer helped you with the training of your summoning abilities, we weren’t able to spend much time together. I don’t care about that, though. The fact that I was able to see you again was more than enough for me._

_Mum, thank you. Thank you for patting my head every time that you saw I was sad. I had forgotten how good it felt. Also spending time with you made me remember why everyone says that I had inherited your personality. We’re so alike! Especially our love for cool weapons. I really wanted to use a scythe like you, but Auntie told me that a sabre fit me better. I think that she told me that because she was a little jealous. Summer asked Grunkle to teach her how to use a scythe and I was going to ask him the same. So, I think that you get what I’m trying to say._

_Well, I don’t know what else I can say._

_Oh! I know._

_Thank you! Thank you for believing Mia and I when we told you the truth. If you hadn’t believed us then things would have turned very uncomfortable. What happened to Summer and Raven could have been very different. Those two are always doing dangerous things by theirselves. Though, I’m not the right person to say that as Mia and I have done the same thing several times. To be honest, I felt very frustrated when Summer got hurt._

_I’m fast. Faster than anyone. But my speed wasn’t enough to help my sister. I feel really glad that in the end, my speed worked very well during that last fight. Sorry for worrying you about it, by the way. It must have been hard for you to saw me like that and my legs were as achey AF!._

_And, well, I think that this is everything._

_There’s a lot of things that I wanted to say, but this letter would become quite long if I write them, so, I just want to say this last thing._

_Thank you._

_Thank you for letting me be at your side again. Thank you for helping us. Thank you for spending more time with me. I had totally forgotten it how nice it was to be at your side. Maybe we spent more time as friends than a family, but I think that that was the right thing to do. Our ages difference wasn’t that big after all, but it was nice to spend time like friends._

_I wonder what this new future is going to give us?_

_Exitium is no longer a problem and this time you will be there for Summer and me, I can’t wait for see you again._

_Thanks for everything and always remember this, I love you._

_With love, Silver._

_P.D: <3_

**From:** Mia

 **To:** My two wonderful mothers.

_Mama, when I saw you again, you looked so peaceful. It was like you were having a nice sleep, but thinking about what had happened made that thought seem so strange. When you woke up I was so happy to be able to hear your voice again. But, as I had promised Raven. I didn’t tell you the truth. Though, I really wanted to do that. When you began to blame yourself for what had happened to Dad, I could not help but see myself in you._

_I felt so bad the day when Raven lost her arm and ended in coma for a whole week. Everything had happened because of my recklessness. I really thought that Raven would hate me for that but, well, you already know that she didn’t blame me. That was the reason why I told you “Don’t blame yourself.” You made me remember how bad I had felt for Raven. People say that I am the spitting image of Dad but I had always thought that you and I have a lot in common, and I’m not talking about the hair color, jejeje._

_Dad, when I was able to see you again, I didn’t know how to react. I mean, I had seen you without your right arm many times. In our future you always took off the prosthesis for maintenance, but this time was different. Thinking that the prosthesis that I built would be the first one that you would wear made me happy. Whatever Raven did to you really cheered you up. I wanted to hug you, but I’m sure that you remember how things turned out when our teams got together. I’m really you spitting image. Aren’t I?._

_I felt so good when the four of us get together as a family again and thanks to you, I was able to see Raven smile from the bottom of her heart again._

_Raven, she is awesome, isn’t she? She had bear a lot of things all by herself, with Summer’s help of course. After what happened to you I was able to see how bad she felt with herself. We are twins so, I should figured out why she felt so bad, but I didn’t. I couldn’t feel more upset with myself about it. If I had known the truth sooner then I would have done something for her. When Raven lost her arm I felt horrible with myself and when she got hurt during the fight against Exitium I felt useless._

_Raven always got hurt in front of me and I could never do anything about it._

_But, what turned out to be the worse was seeing how she got after grandma’s death. I really wanted to save her too. I really wanted it, but my fight with Mercury distracted me. If I had arrived sooner things would have been different, but I didn’t. Raven wanted to save grandma with all her heart but, in the end… Dad, I am really, really sorry for that. We came here to change the future, but we were unable to save a member of our family._

_And, when Raven went after Adam, man. She was blaming herself for what had happened and killing him was the only thing that she wanted to do to redeem herself. Of course I was angry for what he had done to both of you and, even if I also wanted to take care of him, I didn’t want Raven to turn herself into a killer. Even if she saw herself as your killer, I have never seen her like that. I know that what happened wasn’t her fault. I feel really grateful to you, Mama. Even if seeing Adam again was painful for you, thank you for helping me to stop Raven. Dad, the punch that you gave to him was AWESOME! I wish that my punches could be that powerful. Even if Raven and I didn’t plan it, it was pretty nice to see your love confession. Though, the confession that Raven and I know is pretty different but it was nice anyway._

_Oh! I almost forget it!._

_The reason I’m leaving this letter is because we’re returning to our time today. Sorry for not saying anything about it sooner. I really, **really,** wanted to say “Goodbye” in person, but Summer and Raven told me that this was the best. We don’t know when we can disappear so, oh man, this has become so hard!_

_I think that I put all my feelings in the first few paragraphs and I don’t know what I could write right now. Maybe I should finish this._

_I wonder how this future will be?_

_Mama, Dad, it was very nice to see your youngselves and spend time not just like family, but also as friends. It was nice. It made my heart feel warm. Mama from now on, no matter what happens, don’t you dare to run away for your friends and Dad. That’s the reason of why aunts Ruby and Weiss are your friends and the reason of why Dad is, well, your girlfriend. Because they care about you. And seriously, don’t you dare try to hide your ears ever again!. I had always thought that they’re very cute. Dad, you’re never alone. I know that you felt like everyone leaves you behind after what happened at Beacon, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Your family will always be there for you. Take care of Mama and let her know that she is loved and let her love you back. It was very nice to spend time with you again, take care and see you soon._

_Signed the future most awesome brawler of Vale, Mia._

**From:** Raven

 **To:** Mama and Dad.

_You know that I’m not a woman of words, but here I go._

_You should have already read Mia’s letter, so, you must know why we decide to leave these letters, but I’m going to say it just in case. We’re returning to our time today._

_Dad, I’m really, really sorry. I wanted to save grandma. I really wanted to. I wanted it so that you could spend more time with her. You always told me about how my eyes were just like her’s and Grunkle told so many stories about her. I feel really proud of my name. I always wanted to know her and when we thought about the time-travel for fix our future, I thought that I’d be able to save her. I didn’t care if my name ended up changing, because I would finally be able to spend time with my grandma. To see you and her and spend time together as mother and daughter, but in the end, that didn’t happen. I should have thought of that possibility, I’m really sorry._

_Mama, I’m sorry for what I almost did to Adam. You and Dad taught me that life is very important, but I didn’t care about it and I almost killed him, like I killed you. I know that you two have forgiven me for that, but i’m still feeling guilty for it. The weapons which killed you were in my hands after all and no matter what happens now, that feeling will never be able to leave me. But, knowing that you don’t blame me for that, I can actually go on living. Mama you shouldn’t feel bad right now thinking that I’m just like you, running away from the people whom I care about. I didn’t inherit that from you. Summer and I picked up that habit a very long time ago. In that moment I just wanted to finish that bastard, I didn’t want him to hurt you or Dad ever again, but your slap make me return to reality. What was I doing? I had never been like that before. Thank you for saving me from doing something horrible. Mama…thank you._

_Dad when I saw you. I was able to notice how bad do you felt. But, I think that losing your arm wasn’t the thing that left you sad. Thinking that Mama had run away for you was the reason why you were so depressed. Feeling that everyone had left you behind, that was the reason of why I decided to take you to speak with grandma. In our future speaking in front of the graves of both of you always made me feel better. And since, like Mother, like Daughter, I thought that it would help you too. Thank Oum it worked._

_Mama, when I saw you, I quickly noticed that you were pretending to be asleep. You didn’t feel as though you were able to face Dad. I understand that you were blaming yourself so much for what had happened. You know that I understand that feeling very well. Spending time with you was nice, fighting at your side was awesome, being a family again… I cannot express how grateful I am for that._

_Well, since we won’t see each other for a fairly long time, I can say this, Mama, Dad, I’m scared._

_We completed our mission, the future that we know no longer exists. This means that you won’t die and I won’t lose my right arm, but I’m scared. Will I continue being the same person? My name will be the same? My personality will be the same? Will I being myself?_

_I feel like I have lost my confidence now that the future had become a total mystery. I don’t know what to expect, I know that this result is the reason why we were fighting all this time, and now that the mission had been completed, I don’t know. I feel happy, weird, I want to cry, and I’m very scared, everything at the same time. I’m too used to my right arm that it’s hard to think of a future I won’t have lost it. My right arm had been the constant reminder that I have to be strong for Mia, for Silver, for Summer, for my whole family. I know that Mia feels guilty every time that she sees my arm, but I try my best to let her know that what happened isn’t her fault,. A little hypocritical of me, I know._

_I’m scared for my own future. What kind of things are waiting for me?_

_Sorry for expressing my doubts in this letter, you shouldn’t have to feel worried for me right now._

_Well, I think that this is all. Mama, Dad, is was really nice to be able to spend time with you again. To spend time not only as a family, but also as friends. I couldn’t wait to see you again. From now on, the future will be different._

_Thanks for taking your time and reading this. See you later and I love you from the bottom of my heart._

_Raven._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, next chapter is the finale following by an epilogue. Is hard to know that is coming to an end, but this needed to happen sooner or later. There also a little announcement that I’ll like to make, but that something for the epilogue. Anyway, see you next time!.


	31. See you again in the future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, is finally here, the “last” chapter, remember that there are an epilogue but for now, let’s just enjoy this.

Qrow continued to lean against the wall as he watched the girls. He did not know what the letters they were reading said, but it had to be serious or touching, because almost everyone looked like they wanted to cry. Summer and Raven would have written very serious things, seeing how Ruby began to twist the letter in her hands, she did not look sad, she looked pretty angry.

“What kind of kid runs away and just daring to merely leave a letter to her parents!?” Suddenly Ruby noticed everyone were watching her. She remembered that she was not the right person to say that “Right… I did that in their timeline.”

“That aside.” Weiss said while she folded Silver’s letter. “I really want to know who taught them to do this sort of thing.”

“Well, your sister and I raised them.” Qrow said and giggled when he saw Weiss’ face. She did not look happy with that.

“Maybe that would explain a few things.” Blake said, she was reading Raven’s letter again… her poor daughter. “We need to search for them.”

“Uncle, do you know where they went?” Yang said. “Any clue can help. Please, we really need to see them one more time.”

“Please!” Ruby said, making puppy eyes.

Qrow sighed, he also wanted to see his great-nieces, but what Summer had told him before leaving was not very informative.

“The place of the beginning.” He had tried to figure out what that could mean, but it was hard. Qrow sighed again, he knew Team SSMR’s true identities for a long time, but the girls in front of him had only learned the truth a few days ago. It was completely normal that they wanted to see their kids. Summer’s words had been strange, but maybe her parents could understand the meaning of those words.

“The place of the beginning.” He said. “When Oz asked Summer about where they were going, that was what she said. I had tried to figured out what that could mean, but it was useless.”

The place of the beginning, the place where everything started. That did not tell them much, but if Summer and the others decided to return to the place where everything started that only meant they returned to Atlas. With Raven’s Bumblebee that was easy for them, at least that was what Weiss, Blake, and Yang were thinking. Ruby did not believe that the girls had returned to Atlas, there had to be another meaning. The place of the beginning, while it was true that everything had started in Atlas, the Atlas of the future, but… what if Summer was talking about the place of the very beginning? Start from zero, the place where Ruby met Weiss, the place where Yang met Blake, the place where they met each other, the place where they spent a whole month together with their daughters. Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven had decided to return to Beacon.

“I know where they are.” Ruby cried out, gaining the attention of everyone. “Let’s go!”

“Where!?” Weiss said.

“Don’t ask questions! Just follow me! Thanks for the information Uncle, see you later!”

Qrow just sighed while he watched the four girls go to who-knows-where, but he smiled. Seeing that made a thought pop into his head, “like mother like daugther.”

.

.

.

Summer and Raven were sitting on the floor of what used to be Ozpin’s office. Silver and Mia were throwing stones into the dragon grimm’s mouth. They were not able to think of anything else to do to kill some time. Mia had suggested to destroy the dragon, but if they did that instead of waiting until the Grimm became powder, then the souls who were being purified would not be able to rest in peace. Silver had suggested to kill some other Grimm to kill time, but Summer convinced her to don’t do it. Finally, when Silver and Mia got bored they decidef to sit next to their sisters.

“What time it is?” Mia asked.

“5:20.” Raven was able to hear how her twin complained about it. “It’s still dark, what were you expecting?”

“Nothing special. It’s just that I feel that time is passing so slowly.”

“Same here.” Silver said, and then she turn to look at her sister. “Can we return to our parents?”

“Silver… I understand how you feel, but thing about this is we can disappear at any time. What if that happens while we are having a comfortable family talk.”

“I guess that you’re right, but still… I wanted to see them just one more time.”

Summer put her left arm around her sister shoulders. Raven felt Mia rest her head on her shoulder. The big sisters looked at each other. They could understand how their younger sisters felt, Summer and Raven also wanted to see their parents one more time. But, even if Silver and Mia didn’t understand, Summer and Raven knew that what they were doing was the best. Even thinking about saying goodbye was hard. The girls began to stare up at the night sky, there were few stars shining. Beacon was silent and the only thing that they could hear were only the growls of a few Grimm’s growls. No one was speaking, they were in totally silence until…

“SUMMER, SILVER!”

“RAVEN, MIA!”

Hearing those voices made the girls run to the edge of the building to see who had yelled their names. Though, they already knew the answer. Ruby and Yang were looking for them, Silver and Mia looked at each other and smiled. Summer and Raven said nothing, they were totally motionless. Mia took advantage of her sister’s state and took Bumblebee, then she slashed it in the air and opened a portal. She and Silver jumped into it, and surprisingly, Summer and Raven did not try to stop them. When the portal closed itself, the older sisters just sighed and decided to wait, there were nothing that they could do.

Meanwhile, Ruby and Yang were still yelling their daughters’s names. How team RWBY had arrived to Beacon was easy, Weiss had summoned a nevermore who took them there. Though, the white-haired girl said that she wouldn’t do that ever again, as it used too much energy, but now she didn’t care. The only thing that they wanted was to see their children.

“Ruby, Yang, don’t scream! Remember that there are Grimm here.” Weiss said but, as she was already expecting, the sisters ignored her.

“Maybe they are in the dorm.” Blake said. “Yang, let’s go and check the dorms.”

“But what if they’re not there!” The blonde said and she continue screaming her children’s names.

“Summer, Silver! Please come out! I swear that I’m not mad with you!”

Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder, Weiss was trying to convince her to stop screaming. Blake was doing the same with Yang and, when they finally convinced them to stop screaming and begin searching the dorms, a portal appeared in front of them. The next thing that they knew, Silver and Mia were hugging them. Of course, the questions did not wait. Why did you run away? Why didn’t you tell us you were returning to your timeline today? But the most important question, where is your sisters? Silver and Mia said that they could answer the questions later, they did mention Summer and Raven’s whereabouts. Silver was pointing at Beacon’s tower, while Mia opened a portal. The girls and their parents entered it and when they arrived, the first thing that Silver and Mia did was hide themselves behind their parents.

“They look angry.” The younger sisters said.

Summer and Raven’s faces were totally stoic and their arms were crossed. They did not look angry, but Silver and Mia knew their sisters very well. So, they could easily tell that their sisters were angry. Summer was the one who asked how their parents and aunts knew that they had decided to hide themselves at Beacon. Ruby was the one who answered the question, after all, she had been the one who figured it out.

“The place of the beginning.” She said. “That could also mean the place where everything started. Since Beacon is the place where I met Weiss and where Yang met Blake, I just… got the feeling that you would be here.”

There was silence for a few seconds, until Summer and Raven began to laugh. That had been pretty unexpected. At this point, everyone believed that the girls were mad but looked like it was actually the opposite.

“I told you that one of them would discover the meaning of that sentence.” Raven said.

“Next time I’ll make sure to say something more complicated.”

After that, Summer and Raven stretched their arms out. Nobody wasted time and, in less than the blink of an eye, they were in the middle of a big and comfortable family-hug. After that both families decided to sit on the floor and talk a little. Though, most things of that talked about were questions for Summer and the others like, why did they leave like that? The answer was that since they could disappear at any time, they did not want it to happen while they were having a nice family moment. The next question was simply for an explanation of that. Raven was the one to explain it. She said that right now, she and her team were covered with an invisible blanket of dust which help them to keep themselves in the past. That blanket would disappear at some point during that day, making them return to their future with whatever thing their were wearing or holding. People were the only exception, the hard part was explaining how they would return to a timeline which no longer existed. Raven said that explaining how the time travel worked was difficult, so she decided to not answer that.

“The technology of the future sounds very awesome!” Ruby said and then she turned to look at Summer. “Sorry, if I had know that you were returning to your time today, I’d have done something special for you and your sister yesterday.”

“Mom…” She whispered and a smile appeared on her face. “The fact that we were together made yesterday special.”

Ruby could not control herself and she hug her daughter again. Summer said nothing and she returned the hug.

“Hey!” Silver said. “I want a hug too!”

Silver felt a pair of arms wrap around her stomach.

“Like this?” Weiss asked.

 Silver nodded and returned the hug. Meanwhile, the Xiao Long-Belladonna family was watching the petrified Grimm.

“It’s a little hard to believe that thanks to this thing we won’t have school for a whole year.” Blake said. “And we have to include the time it takes the school to be rebuilt”

“Come on, Mama!” Mia said “See the good point of this. You will have vacations and, since you don’t have a house, you can live with Dad and spend all the time that you want with her!”

Blake’s face turned red but, before she could scold her daughter for say those embarassing things, Mia began to run, making Blake chase after her. Yang was laughing, it was funny to see Blake acting not-so-Blake-like. Raven just smiled until she felt a hand on her shoulder and then she turn to see her mom.

“About your letter.” Yang said. “I just want to say that it’s okay to be scared. Now you don’t know what could happen in the future but, between us, I think that the unknown is what makes the future exciting. Don’t you agree?”

“I agree with you, but the problem is…” She began to rub her right arm. “There are many things that I'm used to, it is a little hard to think about them disappearing.”

“Oh! I know, tell me about the future. That way I will be able to know how many things changed.”

“I don’t know. What do you think Summer?”

“Well…” Summer said, Ruby was still hugging her. “We already changed a lot of things, so, I don’t think that some extra information could be bad. What do you want to know?”

After hearing that, Yang managed to get Blake to stop chasing Mia. The four of them sat near Summer, who had managed to get Ruby to release her. It wasn’t because she didn’t like the hug, it was just that Summer liked to talk with the people in a “normal” way. Silver was sitting in Weiss’ lap with her arms around her mother’s waist and, thanks to the height difference, Weiss’ jaw was resting on Silver’s head. The things that team RWBY wanted to know were pretty basic, how old were they when they got married? How old were they when Summer and the others born? Yang and Blake got married when they were twenty and few months before the wedding, Yang helped Ruby and Weiss to realize their feelings for each other. Ruby and Weiss got married only a few months after Yang and Blake. Raven and Mia born when Yang and Blake were twenty-one, Summer was born when Ruby was twenty and Weiss twenty-two, and Silver was born one year later. The girls also said that both families lived in Patch. Yang and Blake lived in the house where Yang and Ruby had grown up in, a wedding gift from Taiyang, while Ruby and Weiss built a house close to Yang and Blake’s. What kind of jobs team RWBY did in the future were the only thing that team SSMR refused to speak of, that was a surprise.

“That sounds like a very nice future.” Blake said while she patting Mia’s head.

“I can’t believe that Dad is going to give you the house!”

“I know!”

“I have a question.” Weiss said, Silver was still sitting in her lap, she really was enjoying her mother’s hug. “I’ve been wondering for a while, why were you four sent here? I mean, why just four people? Why no more?”

Team SSMR turned to each other, that was a question with a very easy answer. If they had enough energy, they would sent more people. They had just enough power to send four people. The reason why Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven had been chosen for that was because their parents shouldn’t be separated, and no one better than their daughters could prevent that. The second reason of why they had been chosen was their semblances. Summer’s silver eyes were needed, but if they have had more power then it would have been more than certain that Qrow, Winter, or even team JNPR would had accompanied them. Hearing the last part make Team RWBY feel glad, at least Jaune, Phyrra, Ren, and Nora were still alive in the girls future.

“If Jenny could use her semblance on people then it would have been nice to bring her.” Summer said. “Though, that would have meant that Mia or Silver could not have come.”

“Noren would also have been very useful.” Silver said. “His semblance would have done so much for us during some fights.”

“Silver…” Raven said, she looked a little disappointed “I don’t want to sound rude, but please remember, that when Mia and Noren are together… things happen. And I’m NOT talking about good things. Remember that time when they leave the training room upside down, until this day I keep asking myself how they left those footsteps on the roof”

“What can I say?” Mia said, for her what Raven had said was more of a joke than a serious thing. “There’s a reason of why he is my best friend”

“We leave you two alone for five minute. Five minutes!”

It was like Summer and the others have forgotten their parents because they began to talk about Jenny and Noren like team RWBY was not there. On the other hand, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were looking at each other and they were sharing the same thought. Who were Jenny and Noren? People from the future was the most obvious answer. They were also wondering if those two could be the children of someone who they knew but, when they asked about it, the only thing that they got was their daughters smiling while their said, “It’s a secret.” Basically, Ruby and the others would need to wait to know who Jenny and Noren were.

“Look! Dawn is here.” Silver said, pointing at the sky.

In the horizon, the dark sky slowly began to become soft yellow. The sun was starting to come out and the stars were disappearing. The sky and the clouds began to turn yellow, almost orange. The first ray of light began to illuminate the place and now, the damage that the Grimm had done to the school was pretty visible, but the girls could not care less about it. They could only focus in the scene that they were seeing. Everyone had seen the dawn before, but this time, something… something was different.

“You know.” Silver said, looking at Weiss. “We used to see the dawn every year, during the new year to be exact. You used to say that seeing the first dawn of the year was a good way to start the year.”

“Really?” Weiss said, she began to hug her daughter a little tighter while she looked at her with a motherly look in her face. “Well… that sounds like a cute tradition, I like the idea.”

“It’s strange.” Summer whispered, but Ruby was able to hear her. “Raven and I have seen the dawn together a lot of times but… this is the first time in years that seeing the dawn made me feel so calm.”

“Well, maybe you’re feel different this time because you are with your family.” Ruby said, she put her right arm around her daughter’s shoulders. Mother and daughter smiled at each other.

“What happened?” Blake asked. Without any warning, Mia had began to hug her, but as soon as she said “Nothing,” Blake smiled and began to return the hug. “I get it, you just want a hug.”

“Man, now I realize that it’s very cold here.” Yang said feeling how her body was shivering.

“And what were you expecting?” Raven said, trying not to laugh. “It’s already winter.”

Both blondes began to laugh. Now everyone knew what was different. For Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven, seeing the dawn with their parents was like reliving old memories. For Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, seeing the dawn with their daughters was just the beginning of what would be a family tradition. Nobody said anything, they remained there in silence, watching the dawn. The sun was almost completely out when Yang turned to look at Raven and noticed something really weird. Raven’s right arm had disappear, or better said, Raven’s right arm was becoming transparent. Raven was not the only one, Blake noticed a considerate part of Mia’s torso was transparent. Weiss noticed how Silver’s legs were also becoming transparent and finally, Ruby saw how the right side of Summer’s face had disappeared. Ruby could still see her daugther’s full face, but she could also see through the right side. SSMR looked at each other, they said nothing and just stood up.

“It’s time to say goodbye.” Summer said.

“What!?” Ruby cried while she rose from the ground, the rest of her team did the same. “You should be kidding! It’s too soon for that.”

“We knew that you would disappear today.” Weiss said. “But this is too soon.”

“This… this must be a very bad joke, it has to be.” Blake whispered to herself, but everyone was able to hear her.

“Come on girls.” Yang said. “Please tell us that this is not happening.”

Each member of team RWBY had tears in the corners of their eyes. This could not be happening, they had spent a lot of time with their daughters without knowing that they were actually their daughters. They had only learned the truth a few days ago. If they had known who team SSMR really was before then… then they would had made something special for them. They would have spent more time together, they could had done something for them if they had learn the truth earlier. On the other hand, team SSMR had began to look at their parents. Now Mia and Silver understand why Summer and Raven had wanted to go without saying goodbye; seeing their parents was hard, the girls did not want to go. They wanted to stay and spend more time with their parents, but that was not possible. Something must have come into Silver’s head because, without a word, she had begun to take off her sweatshirt. She gave the sweatshirt to Ruby and, with a smile on her face, Silver said.

“Merry christmas!!!”

“W-what?” Ruby whispered, she went from being sad to be confused.

“Well, even if we had wanted it, we wouldn’t have been able to spend christmas together, so, that sweatshirt is my christmas present to you, AND my way of saying. See you later.”

Summer, Raven, and Mia began to look at each other. They had totally forgotten it. They planned on taking whatever thing that they were wearing or holding to go to the future with them. If they took off their clothes, then those clothes will remain in that time. That was a very good way let their parents remember that that was not a “Goodbye” but a “See you later.” Summer, Raven, and Mia began to follow Silver’s example. Summer took off her hood, Raven and Mia took off their scarfs.

“Since mum already has a hood, I think that you should keep mine.” Summer said, giving her red hood to Weiss. “Promise me that you’ll take care of it.”

“I’ll take care of it, I swear it.” Weiss said hugging the red hood against her chest. Now that piece of cloth would be the only memory of her daughter.

Since Blake already had a scarf around her neck, Mia decide to tied her yellow scarf around her mom’s left wrist and, for some reason, Mia began to laugh.

“It’s a little weird to give you my scarf, because you were the one who give it to me when I was a kid”

“Really?” Blake said while she was touching the yellow scarf tied to her wrist. “In that case, I’ll take care of it so I can return it to you in good condition.”

Raven did the same as her sister, she tied her black scarf around Yang’s right wrist. Once she finished, Yang began to touch the scarf and she turn to look at her daughter.

“I can’t wait for see you and Mia again.”

“Come on, Dad. You just need to wait a few years.”

“But that’s a very long time, and you know that I’m not a patient person.”

The two began to laugh, or at least pretend to. Once the girls finished delivering their Christmas gifts they began to embrace as families. Ruby and Weiss began to hug Summer and Silver, while Blake and Yang hugged Mia and Raven. That was the last hug that they would have for a very long time. They remained there without saying a single word, the words were not necessary as everything that they wanted to say had already been said. No one knew how much time had passed; seconds or maybe even minutes. One thing was certain, Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven’s bodies had become completely transparent. There was not much time left. The girls stopped their hugs and they stepped back to look at their parents. Tears were coming out of Raven’s eyes, but she was smiling. Mia was trying to clean the tears from her face, but she also was smiling. Silver was trying her best for stop crying like a baby, but she could not, although she was smiling. Finally, Summer wiped away the tears that were running down her face. She took a deep breath and, with a smile on her face, she whispered.

_See you._

The word “Wait!” came out of Ruby’s mouth. She tried to reach her daughter with her right arm, but it was too late. In the blink of an eye. Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven had disappeared. There was only powder left floating in the air; it was like seeing little stars. The powder disappeared in a matter of seconds and that was it. Team SSMR had disappeared completely, their daughters were no longer in the world.

Weiss looked down at the red-hood in her hands. Some tears fell on it. She wil; make sure to take good care of that hood, no matter how much time passed. She will make sure to return that hood to its owner. But, she was sad. If she had known that Summer and Silver were her daughters, then she would have spent more time with them. Thanks to the age difference, she would not have acted like a mother figure for them, but she knew… she knew that her daughters had seen her as a very good friend. For her, it was still funny how Summer looked like Ruby but she hadn’t inherited her personality, and the opposite had happened with Silver. She could not wait to see them again.

Blake clenched her wrist where the yellow scarf was tied with her right hand. If she had known the truth, then she would have done a lot of things with Raven and Mia. Talk with them, play with them, especially with Raven. The two were so alike in personality. In many aspects, Mia was Yang spitting image while Raven resembled her. The only difference was the hair color. Raven and Mia were definitely the perfect mix of their parents and Blake was happy for that. She was also sad for their disappearance, but she was also pretty sure of something. She will take care of that yellow scarf. She was going to make sure she could return it in good condition, no matter what.

Yang was also looking at the scarf Raven had tied to her arm, the arm Mia had built for her. If she had known that those two were her daughters, then she would have done a lot of things with them, special things. She was still feeling amazed with how much Mia had taken after her. Mia was her looked just like her besides her hair color, and Raven… knowing that her futureself had named one of her daughters after her own mother was a little hard. After what had happened, though, she could not think of a better way for honor the memory of her mother. Yang made a decision, she would take care of her right arm and the black scarf until the next time that she could see the people who had given those things to her.

Ruby had fallen to her knees, tears where coming out of her eyes. She could not believe it, her daughters had disappeared in front of her eyes. She would have loved to able to spend more time with them, have a very long and excited talk about weapons with Silver, talk with Summer about whatever she wanted. Summer… her futureself had named her older daughter after her mother. Ruby felt happy about that, that was the best way to honor her mother’s memory, but she was still sad. She wanted to see Summer and Silver again. She wanted to spend Christmas with them and Weiss, like the family that they were.  She looked at the sweatshirt and that made her begin to wipe away her tears. That was right, this was not a “Goodbye” it was just a “See you later.”

“The future” she said, looking at the sky and in a matter of seconds she turned to look at her team. She smile at them. “We will see them again, in the future. We just need to wait.”

On December 22nd, team SSMR, consisting of Summer Rose-Schnee, Silver Rose-Schnee, Mia Xiao Long-Belladonna, and Raven Xiao Long-Belladonna disappeared without trace and the only people who knew what had really happened to them were Ozpin, Qrow Branwen, Glynda Goodwitch, James Ironwood, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long.

The days passed and December 25th, Christmas day, finally arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normally, now is when I say my finals words about this work but that would happen in the next one. Well, Summer, Silver, Mia and Raven are no longer in Vale but at least their parents would be able to see them in the future, as always, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment and see you next time.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


	32. Epilogue: Merry Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll be honest, I wanted to be a bad person and post this chapter until December but then I told myself. “Don’t do that” and since Thanksgiving is near, well, this is my gift for all of you.
> 
> A little concept, everything is taking place during the Christmas dinner and, somehow, a tradition was created, the gift given to you by your parents, aunts, uncles and granparents are the last things that you should open in Christmas (in other words, open them after or during the dinner)
> 
> My finals words about this Project will be at the end, plus, a little announcement.

**December 25th**

**Patch**

**Xiao Long-Rose’s house.**

“Okay girls, three, two, one…”

“Merry Christmas!!!”

As Yang and Ruby had promised to their dad, they returned to Patch for christmas and brought Weiss and Blake with them. Tai loved the idea of having more people in the house, especially around the holidays. Surprisingly, Qrow was there too. It had been years since the last time he had spent Christmas with his family. Everyone had toasted with grape juice, with Qrow being the only one who was drinking wine… the whole bottle.

The following days after team SSMR’s disappearance were a little difficult for Ruby and the others. Everything had become so quiet without them. Ozpin had let Beacon’s students know that the school would return to normal in a year, plus the time it would take them to rebuild it; only around five or six additional months. The first ones who noticed that team SSMR had disappeared was team JNPR. Ruby told them that the girls had returned to their home and that they would see them again in the near future. Team RWBY had been treasuring the pieces of clothing that their daughters had given to them. Yang and Blake were wearing Raven and Mia’s scarves as though they were bracelets, and Ruby had decided to wear Silver’s sweatshirt until she was no longer able to put it on, something that would happen in a couple of years. Weiss was the only one who was wearing Summer’s hood in a very special way. She had tied it to her waist, like a sash. Ruby had tried to convince her to use the red hood properly, but Weiss said that she did not want people to think she was imitating Ruby, or something like that.

“Are you ready, Lil’ sis?”

“I was born ready, sis!”

Yang and Ruby looked at each other, nodded, and then they drank their juices in one gulp. It was now or never, time to tell their dad that both of them had girlfriends had finally arrived. The sisters took a deep breath and took the hands of their girlfriends. Officially, there was no turning back.

“Dad!”

“What happened?” Tai asked, Qrow was watching carefully, he was very sure that something funny was about to happen.

“She’s my girlfriend!”

Yang and Ruby said that while they were pointing at Blake and Weiss respectively. Qrow began to giggle while Weiss and Blake’s faces turned red. Yang and Ruby had been very direct and Tai…

“Of course they’re your girlfriends, are you four not friends?”

He had interpreted the word “Girlfriend” as female friend. Qrow began to giggled more as Yang and Ruby sighed. Why was everything becoming more complicated? As the older sister, Yang decided to clear up the misunderstanding, though, it was pretty hard to think about how Taiyang would react. But again, there was no turning back.

“Dad, we’re talking about the second meaning of the word “Girlfriend.””

Tai put his right hand on his chin. “The second meaning…”

Ruby and Yang held their breath, Weiss and Blake didn’t dare say a single word, and Qrow had finally stopped giggling. Everyone was waiting. Finally after several long seconds, Tai’s face showed surprise while the words, “Oh…” came out of his mouth. He had finally understood. Now, whatever happened, good or bad, Ruby and Yang were ready.

“Thanks Oum!”

Okay, Ruby and Yang had not expected that reaction, neither had Qrow. Taiyang looked pretty happy, he placed his glass juice on the table next to him and took Weiss and Blake’s hands. What was going on?

“You don’t know how long I had lived with the fear that, someday, a pair of random guys will come and take my daughters away for me. Now that I know that you two are their girlfriends, I couldn’t feel more relieved. Please promise me that you will take care of them.”

“We…” Weiss and Blake turned to look at each other. They had not expected that reaction from Taiyang. Their girlfriends’ dad accepting them was the best thing that they could hear. “We promise it, Mr. Xiao Long.”

“Please, call me Tai. Thank you and welcome to the family.” After that, Tai turned to look at his daughters, Ruby more specifically. “Now that I think about it, aren’t you a little young to have a girlfriend?”

“Dad! I’m turning sixteen next year! I’m old enough to have a girlfriend.”

“Who is two years older than you?”

“DAD!”

That was how Ruby and Taiyang began to discuss the fact that Ruby had a girlfriend who was two years older than her. Weiss said nothing, somehow she knew that Tai was just teasing Ruby with that. Qrow was trying to understand Tai’s logic. According to him, dating boys was bad, but dating girls was okay. It was a very strange logic, but he didn’t care, his nieces were happy. Qrow lounged back into couch and continued to drink from his bottle of wine. Blake was staring at her Scroll. Someone had sent her a message and Yang had began to laugh. She couldn’t believe what just had happened, she had expected something very different, but right now she couldn’t care less about it. So, she put her right arm around Blake’s shoulders and asked her what was she doing.

“Sun sent me a Christmas message.” Blake said.

“I see… Wait! How did he know that…”

“Yang, Nora made sure to let **_everyone_** know that we were fine.”

The blonde said nothing and she began to read the message together with her girlfriend.

_A message from: Sun_

_Subject: Merry Christmas!_

_Hey, Blake. Merry Christmas!_

_I hope you’re doing okay. The next time that we see each other make sure to tell me where you were during november. I was worried about you. By the way, is it true that Beacon will be back to normal in a year? Scarlet has a friend in Vale who told him that. If it’s true, let me tell you that I really envy you, a whole year of vacation sounds awesome. I’m returning to school in January. I don’t know why the headmaster decided to do that. Anyway, have a very good Christmas and see you soon._

_Kisses 3._

That last word made Yang begin to feel a little uncomfortable. Was Sun trying to flirt with Blake? If someone asked her then she would answer with a “Yes.” It was too obvious that Sun had a crush on her and Yang would not sit idly by for that. Without any warning, she took Blake’s Scroll and, before the faunus could say anything about it, she felt Yang’s lips against her own. The sound of a Scroll taking a picture sounded and, when the kiss finished Yang began to write something before returning the Scroll. Blake saw Yang had sent the picture of their kiss together with a message.

_Sorry monkey, but this kitty already has a owner._

_P.D: Tell Neptune that Weiss is off limits._

The only thing that Sun responded with was…

_WTF!?!?!?!?_

Blake cried Yang’s name. How could she be so jealous? Sun had just sent her a Christmas message and just that. Was Yang angry for the “Kisses 3” thing? In that case, Blake needed to clarify that she was no longer interested in him but, as if her luck could not be any worse, Zwei came out of the room where he was supposed to be locked. Ruby would be the one behind that. Now, the only thing that Blake cared about was hiding herself behind Yang and screaming, “Keep that dog away from me.”

Meanwhile, after a few minutes of discussion, Ruby finally realized that her father was just teasing her while Weiss was informed her, “I tried to tell you.” The young leader was a little embarrassed to have fallen for that joke. Suddenly, her Scroll began to shake and Ruby saw she had received a message from an unknown number.

_Unknown number._

_Subject: Hello._

_I’m going to call you in eight seconds, please answer. If you could, please activate the loudspeaker._

Ruby and Weiss looked at each other. The message looked suspicious and usually someone does not listen to a message received from an unknown number. But, as Weiss was already expecting, Ruby did what the message said. When her Scroll began to ring, she answered the call and activated the loudspeaker function.

“Hello?” Ruby said after a short period of silence.

_“Hello, friend Ruby!”_

Ruby’s eyes filled with tears when she heard that voice, a voice that she believed she would never be able to hear again. Weiss looked surprised, and Yang and Blake turned to look at Ruby after hearing that voice. The four of them knew who the owner of that voice was and everyone had believed that they won’t see that person ever again.

“Penny!” Ruby said while she was trying to clean her tears “Oh my gosh! I thought that I wouldn’t ever get to talk to you again, but, How? When? And… wait a minute, how did you get my number? What is going on!?”

_“Those are so much questions but, since everyone is related to each other I can answer them all at once. To be honest, if it had not been for the help of someone, I would not be here.”_

“What do you mean?” Ruby said, now instead of sad she feel confused.

_“Well, my Dad had been able to rebuild me, but without my memory’s disc, he would have built someone totally new. But, a few days ago, someone came to my dad’s lab with a USB, with a copy of **my** memories. I don’t know how that person got them, though. Dad told me that the person presented herself as a friend of mine and she also gave him your number. I don’t know who she was, but if some day I see her again then I’ll thank her for everything. I owe that person my life.”_

Ruby turned back to Weiss after hearing that, they knew who had it was.

_Silver_

Ruby touched the sweatshirt that she was wearing. Silver never told them about what she had done in Atlas, and now they finally knew it. Silver had helped to bring Penny back. Ruby laughed a little, that was the special surprise that Silver had prepared… seriously, that girl.

“Don’t worry, Penny.” Ruby said, she was still touching the white sweatshirt. “I’m sure that you will be able to meet that person.”

_“If you say so. Dad finished rebuilding me on December 23rd. Since Christmas was near, I decided to wait to call you. This is my Christmas surprise for you! I have to go now, Dad and I are having our personal Christmas party. I have plans to tell him about my wish of studying at Beacon. I know that the school will be return to normal in one year by the way, well, I hope to see you soon Ruby, take care!”_

“See you soon, too!”

The call ended after that and the girls began to look at each other. They unconsciously began to touch the pieces of clothing that their daughters had given them. Those girls had done a lot for them and they couldn’t wait for see them again and thank them for everything. Tai was a little confused about the phone call but, Ruby was happy, so he did not care. Qrow just said “Banzai!” Everything was fine now, Salem and Exitium were no longer a problem, the Maidens were safe, and the future had been changed. So, he decided to celebrate in the only way that he knew; drink to unconsciousness. He was ready to reach the bottom of the bottle of wine in his hand in one gulp, but suddenly the words of his futureself and future-Winter resonated in his head.

_Don’t you dare drink a single drop of alcohol!! You don’t know what a drunk night can do!_

_Leave the alcohol **now**. I still have nightmares about that fucking morning._

Qrow’s face turned totally blank. A drunk night, morning. Those words were enough to make him figure out what had happened between him and Winter in the future. He stared at the bottle in his hand and decided to cast it aside.

“Tai.” He said, sounding very serious. “I’m going to need your help. I’ve decided to leave the drink.”

“Wow!” Tai said. “Christmas miracles really exist.”

The celebration continued and time passed. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes transformed into hours, hours into days, days into weeks, weeks into months, and, finally, months become years.

The “present” had changed into the “future”.

.

.

.

**December 25th**

**Patch**

“Okay girls, three, two, one…”

“Merry Christmas!!!”

Spending Christmas in Patch had become a tradition for Team RWBY, Especially since the Xiao Long-Rose house turned into the Xiao Long-Belladonna house. The Rose-Schnee’s house was  near, but Ruby loved to spend Christmas in the house where she grew up and Weiss respected her decision. But, the celebration became more special six years ago, and the reason was very obvious.

“Now, it’s gifts time!”

Mia Xiao Long-Belladonna of six years was hit in the head by her older twin, Raven Xiao Long-Belladonna.

“Mia, Christmas is not just gifts!”

Despite being twins, the girls did not look alike. Mia was the spitting image of her dad, Yang, not only in appearance, but also in personality. Her hair color was the only difference. On the other hand, Raven was almost the spitting image of her mother, Blake. She had gotten the faunus ears, but her hair was blonde instead of black and her eyes were red. The twins could have different personalities, but they also had a very good relationship, most of the time.

“Come on, Raven. Don’t be like that with Mia, she isn’t the only one who want her gifts.”

Raven turned to look at her younger cousin, Summer Rose-Schnee. Summer was watching her younger sister, Silver Rose-Schnee. The little girl also wanted her christmas gifts. Summer and Silver had turned out to be a very interesting combinations of their parents, Ruby and Weiss. While Summer was the spitting image of Ruby, her personality had turned to be just like Weiss’s and the opposite had happened with Silver. Though, her hair color was a very peculiar mix of her parents’. Mia began to hug Silver and the two turned to look at their parents and sisters. Usually they did that when they wanted something and, most of the time, it worked with their parents but hardly worked with their sisters.

“Mia, Silver.” Raven said. “Didn’t we promise to wait for the rest of the family for open the gifts?”

“Grandfather said that he won’t be able to make it.” Summer said. “But we need to wait for Grandpa, Grunkle, Auntie, Uncles Jaune and Ren, Aunts Pyrrha and Nora, Jenny and Noren.”

“Jenny and Noren wouldn’t mind that!” Silver cry in her defense.

Jenny Arc-Nikos and Lie Noren Valkyrie, as their surnames stated, were the children of Team JNPR. Noren was a few months younger than Raven and Mia. The boy was the spitting image of his father. His eyes were pink and the only difference between him and his dad was a little orange spot in his messy, black hair and he had inherited his mother’s personality. Noren was very hyperactive, he and Mia were “Buddies” and when they are together, things happen. On the other hand, Jenny was the perfect mix of her parents. She was the same age as Summer and she was blonde and her eyes were green. Jenny had a very calm personality and sometimes she acted with more maturity than the rest of her friends. The six of them were great friends.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang had began to look at each other and they could not help but smile. Why were their children so cute? Ruby took Silver in her arms and began to pat Summer on the head. Meanwhile, Yang had began to pat Mia’s head while she was looking at her elder daughter.

“Come on, Raven. Just one gift! I’m sure that everyone will understand.”

“Yeah, Dad is on my side!”

Raven sighed. She looked at her mom and sister and the word “Okay” come out of her mouth. Raven was unable to say “No” to her parents. After that, Yang called to Blake. After all, she was the one who had Mia’s present. Blake bent down to look her daughter in the eye, Yang had walked to Raven’s side leaving Blake and Mia alone.

“Okay, Mia close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you. Got it?”

Mia nodded and closed her eyes. She was very excited to see what her mother was going to give to her and, to her surprise, Mia felt something being tied to her neck. It felt like a piece of cloth. She was curious, but she had promised to not open her eyes until her mother told her to. Several seconds happen until Mia heard “You can open your eyes.” When she did that the first thing she saw was her mother’s face smiling at her. After that, Mia decided to see what had been tied to her neck. It was a yellow scarf. Mia’s eyes and mouth open widely, she knew that this scarf was very important to her mom. She had never seen her without that scarf tied to her left wrist. Mia looked back up at Blake and Blake just smiled while she began to pat Mia’s head.

“A very dear friend gave me that scarf a very long time ago. And that friend told me to give it to someone important to me. Mia, promise me that you will take care of the scarf.”

“Yes! I promise! Thanks, mom, I love you.”

Mia began to hug Blake and Blake returned the hug.

“I love you too”

Yang sighed when she saw the mother-daughter moment. How she and Blake could be blessed with such a pair wonderful daughters? Yang turned to look at Raven, she was trying her hardest to hide the envy that she was feeling for her sister. She now wanted her christmas gift too. Yang sighed again, sometimes Raven could have a very hard personality, Yang began to pat her daughter’s head and she bent down to look Raven to the face. Yang loved to see Raven’s eyes, that little pair of red eyes brought her so many memories.

“Are you going to tell me to close my eyes?” Raven asked.

“Nope!”

Yang began to untied the black scarf on her right wrist. Raven’s mouth open widely, she knew how much that scarf meant to her Dad. A person that she never saw again had gave her that scarf on christmas several years ago and, since then, that black scarf had become Yang’s treasure. Raven could not believe that the scarf was her christmas present, even when Yang finished tying the scarf around her daughter’s neck. Raven stared up at her dad.

“The scarf looks better on you and you know how much it means to me. Promise me that you will take care of it.”

“I promise!”

Raven began to hug Yang and Yang just returned the hug without saying a word. Seeing how Raven and Mia had received their gifts made Summer and Silver looked at each other and then at their parents. At that point, Summer had decided to follow her sister wish to get their christmas gifts. Ruby and Weiss turned to each other, even if they didn’t say a single word to each other, Weiss understood that she must be the first to give her present.

“Summer, come here.” Weiss said and then she bent down to look Summer in the face. “If being married to your mom had taught me anything, is that the Rose family has a tradition concerning hood. Your grandmother used to wear a white hood, your mom wears a red-hood, so, I think that it’s time that you join to that tradition.”

Summer watched her mother reach into a bag and pull out a piece of red cloth; it was a hood. Weiss put the hood over Summer’s shoulders. It was a little too big for Summer but, since she was growing up fast, that shouldn’t be a problem in a couple of months or years. Summer began to inspect and touch her gift. She recognized that hood, it was the same hood that Weiss wore like a sash, Summer had never seen her mom without it.

“M-mom, thank you, but… this is…”

“I know. Listen, the person who gave me that hood told me that I should give it to someone very special to me and, since the hood is a little big for Silver, and your mum already has one… well, Merry Christmas Summer.”

Mother and daughter began to hug each other. Now the only one without a gift was Silver, but the little girl’s mind was busy with something else. The scarves were very important to her aunts, the hood was very important to her mom, and Silver know about a piece of clothing that  was very special to Ruby, a white sweatshirt. Her mum always have that sweatshirt tied to her waist and, despite how old that sweatshirt was, it was actually in very good condition.

“If Raven and Mia got the scarves, and Summer got the hood then…” Silver’s eyes began to shine and she turned to look at her mum, and to the thing that was tied to her waist. “That means that you’re going to give me that sweatshirt!”

“Oh, Silver.” Ruby began to pat her daughter’s head. “I would love to do that, but the sweatshirt is a little big for you. I’ll give it to you in a couple of years, I promise. But, that doesn’t mean you aren’t going get a gift, and you’re going to love it.”

“It’s a weapon!”

Yep, Silver was definitely Ruby’s daughter.

“No… well, that was my original idea, but your mother found it out. So… whatever, wait here, I’ll return in a little bit.”

Ruby turned to look at Yang and she pointed to the kitchen. Ruby got up and went into the kitchen, making Blake and Weiss look at each other. They didn’t know what their wives had planned. Several seconds later, Ruby came out of the kitchen carrying a pink box covered with holes. Silver knew that whatever was inside the box was her gift and, when she tried to open it, the box began to move and make noise. The soft sound of barking emanated from the box causing Blake and Mia’s faces to turn white. When they saw what was inside the box, they hide behind Yang.

“What is that thing doing here!?”

The black hair was not the only thing that Mia had inherited from Blake. Silver’s gift had turned out to be a little dog. Zwei had sadly passed away shortly after Silver’s birth and, thanks to the stories that Ruby usually told them about Zwei, Summer and Silver had wanted a dog for a long time. Blake had managed to improve her relationship with Zwei over the years and there were times when she missed him, but a new dog was too much for her. Silver began to hug her gift while the words “Thank you” was coming out of her mouth over and over again. Summer and Raven had began to pet the dog.

“Come on, Blake, Mia.” Yang said looking at the black-haired pair behind her. “The dog is just a baby, he won’t bit you.”

“We’re going to have a very long talk about this Yang!” Blake said, hugging Mia tightly against her. “How dare you bring a dog into this house!?”

“Mama is right, you know I don’t like dogs.”

Yang sighed, she had expected that reaction but she did not care about it. Once the Rose-Schnee family returned to their house the dog will go with them. And being scolded by Blake wasn’t something that Yang couldn’t handle.

“Ruby!” Weiss said, she looked a little pissed. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were going to give Silver a dog!?”

“It was a surprise.” She said in her defense. “Surprise!”

“Silver’s only four, which means that you and I are the ones that will end up caring for this little… fluffy… adorable… c-cute…” Weiss had began to pat the dog together with Summer and Raven. “Who’s a little cutie pie? You are! You are!”

Ruby smiled to herself. Dogs, her wife’s greatest weakness, after her and their children of course.

“Did you already think of a name?” Raven asked Silver.

“That’s a hard question, there is a lot of names that I could use.”

“What about Zweiss?”

“Ruby!”

Summer, Silver, and Raven began to talk about what they should name the dog. Weiss was scolding Ruby for the name that she had suggested. Blake and Mia were still hidden behind Yang but, that was until they heard someone was knocking the door.

“I’m going!”, Mia said and ran to the door. She really wanted to get Silver’s dog away from her. Sadly for Mia, Summer, Silver, Raven, and the dog followed her. The girls were excited to see who had arrived, the girls left their parents alone in the living room.

“Time flies.” Yang said. “It’s hard to believe that it has been years since **_that_** happened.”

“It feels like yesterday for me.” Weiss said. “But I agree with you, when I see Summer and Silver, believing what happened years ago is hard.”

“For me it’s more difficult to believe what could have happened if they hadn’t helped us.” Blake said. “Thinking about those things makes me feel… weird. But, also thinking that we met our daughter futureselves years ago is hard. It feels so unreal.”

“Who cares!?” Ruby cry winning her friends’ attention. “Listen, I know that it’s hard to believe it, I know that what happened feels unreal, but everything happened, everything was real. Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven… They helped us, they gave us this future. I know that it’s strange to think that the girls who we are raising **_are_** and **_aren’t_** the ones who we met years ago, but we can’t care about it right now. They protected and changed our future, we need to do the same for them, now it’s our turn to give them a good future!”

They were silent until everyone began to laugh, Ruby was confused.

“Oh, my little sister has grown up! I couldn’t feel more proud.” Yang said, cleaning the little tears coming out of her eyes. Blake hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

“If you’re acting like this just from seeing Ruby has grown up, then, I don’t want think how you’ll react when Raven and Mia leave the house.”

“Don’t make me think about it!”

“You always know what to say” Weiss said, kissing Ruby on her cheek.

“Thanks.” Ruby said, her face was a little red but, she looked at her team, at her **_family._** “Okay, as we do every year, let's give our children the best Christmas party ever!”

Thinking about what had happened in the past was hard, but something was sure, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang presents were perfect for what had happened in the past. Now they will make sure to create a good future for their daughters, the future that they protected and changed. Now, Summer, Silver, Mia, and Raven would have…

A good future.

**The end.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there’s someone willing to draw little SSMR with their new doggie, I’ll give you my support and permission (just don’t forget to give me the credit for the OCs)
> 
> Well guys, with this the fic “For a good future” is officially over. Oh boy, I honestly don’t know what to say, this was my first work in another lenguage and I´m very satisfied with the result, when I look at all the chapter that I wrote I can’t help but think “I can’t believe that I did that”.
> 
> I want to thanks a lot of people for this.
> 
> First thanks to all who followed this fic from beginning to end (a.k.a my first followers and reviews), I also thanks the ones who followed this fic over the time, you may no have been one of the first ones but I really appreciete all of you, for the ones who push the “Kudos” options, the “Bookmark” options and the ones who leave a comment in this work, really. Thank you.
> 
> Second, I want to thanks my first editor EyesOfSteel, who edited the first two chapters, sadly due general life issues, he was unable to continue whit the edition but I will always be grateful for all the work that he did, thanks men.
> 
> And last but no least, I really want to thanks my current editor, Mr. Ilax. Thank you friend, without your help this fic would never have been finished or it would have a lot of gramar errors, I really appreciete how you decided to take your time for work in this thing as my editor, I could not feel more grateful for your help and hard work, for the bottom of my heart. Thank you.
> 
> And now that I had given all the thanks that I wanted, I’m going to give all of you a surprise, the end of this fic isn’t the end of this AU (Yes, this was an AU) I have plans for write a serie of one-shots and drabbles of how everyone are doing in the new time-line, it would be a fluffy and heartwarming slice-of-life of our favorites future-kids and their parents, sadly I won’t start this right away, I want to take a little break of writting but I promise that I’ll post an annoucent in this fic once the first chapter of the new fic (Hopefully at some point of the next year) has been published. Special “spoiler” the first three chapters are going to be about the days when Raven, Mia, Summer and Silver born.
> 
> Again, thank you very much for follow this story.  
> Thanks for everything.
> 
> Atte. Geo.


End file.
